Childe of light
by Maimakterion
Summary: For centuries Belgarion has wandered the newer worlds seeking signs of his ancient foe, the prophecy of dark. On one world he finds something else, a demonic child, a child who bears a demon, a hard worker, a genius and one who might take up his post.
1. Comrades and styles

Ok this is just a random … thing that popped into my mind after reading the manga but thinking of a series of books by David Eddings. The whole crossover thing was rather inspired by Oneshot Wong but ill try to hold off on the all powerful-ness of his type of main char :D.

Warnings: Crossover, maybe main character death, haven't decided, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm. And I aint posting this at the start of each chapter so you can damn well read it in chapter 1 and stop whinge-ing at me!

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Belgarion grinned happily to himself, the last world had been a cinch – a mere thirty years and the battle was won and on to the next world … this world. This world with its rich vegetation and well developed society, this world with the huge cities that harbored and nurtured all the evils of humanity, this world that would be so much harder to search, this world where the tatters of the dark prophesy would blend in so much more easily with the ordinary human refuse. Yes on developed worlds it took so much longer for him to sort the regular scum and criminals from his true objective.

But that didn't worry him – he'd been searching the newly created worlds for close to 1600 years now ever since his wife had died, he wasn't sure how old he had been then, but since dryads were known to live up to nearly 8 centuries and she was a 13th generation descendant he was fairly sure he had passed the 2000 mark. No what worried him was the constant noise, not a noise normal humans could hear, but the sound any magically awakened individual can feel in their soul when anyone else on the planet uses any form of willworking – the rate and volume of the sound indicated to Belgarion that the arts were being used in combat on a daily basis and that was only in this country, if he expanded his sense the sheer number of users was staggering.

_Well at least it will be easy to find allies … probably powerful ones too. Well first to get out of this accursed forest._

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As Sakura left her office the Godaime smiled happily _well at least my most promising team will have a medic now._

"Aoba. Genma." She was careful to call their names in a different order on occasion – the Hokage must show no favoritism

"Hai"

"I want you two to go pick up someone for me, he should be waiting in the rainbow parrot in Shikuba town, it's a bar on the main street you cant miss it. Give him this," here she handed a blue token to Genma, "and return here. He should be there now and he will wait until midnight. When you enter the bar he will approach you and offer his right hand, it will bear a perfectly round silver birthmark, place the token is that hand."

"Understood hokage-sama."

"Good now be off and find him before our ANBU mistake him for an enemy, I'd hate to lose a squad."

Aoba looked a little worried about this but since Genma had merely nodded and vanished he followed suit.

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Belgarion had actually been at the rainbow parrot for 3 days now, but it was his own fault for getting the dates wrong, he sat in a corner thinking about what he could do about the situation. The voice of the prophecy of light had informed him that his stay on this world would infact be very short indeed as the prophecy of dark had arranged for a child of dark from this world to represent it during the final EVENT here and the rules meant that this world would have to be defended by a child of light who was also born here. Gods he hated those rules at times, but then the rules also stopped the prophecies entering direct combat with one another and thus destroying the universe, and since to break one is to break all the rules he wasn't about to risk his own involvement when the rules demanded a native. Still an offer was coming tonight in Tsunade's place, he assumed it came from Tsunade since he was supposed to meet her tonight but this offer was coming instead the woman herself. The only reason he knew this was what the prophecy had told him, _Tonight, in place of the one you await will come an offer, accept it, _as usual the prophecy was annoyingly silent on all the other details.

The orb on the pommel of his sword gave a slight tug in the direction of the door. It wasn't the real orb of aldur of course, that had been destroyed in making these new worlds, but the replica did have many of the original's powers, it would never be able to slay a god again though.

Belgarion sighed, swallowed the dregs of his drink and walked to the door. Outside Genma and Aoba straightened formally and pushed the door open only to have it shift and open under the hand of someone inside. The tall cloaked man looked at them with piercing blue eyes and sighed heavily holding out one hand, it had a perfectly circular birthmark on the palm. Genma nodded and dropped the token into the waiting hand, he and Aoba turned to leave.

Belagrion stiffened as the disc of solidified chakra was absorbed into his system along with the information encoded on it. He was suddenly remembering listening to Tsunade telling him things that he knew she hadn't told him, he really hated this feeling but since Tsunade had stumbled on this method a year ago he had memories of no less than 7 conversations with her he had never had, still after 2 years on this world and no sign of the child of light and numerous signs of demonic incursion into the human realms he was happy to finally see a familiar face.

"So that vain woman is your hokage now? It's good to hear she's finally calming down." He spoke clearly to the two retreating backs.

"… Yes, Tsunade-sama decided to come back to lead us in our time of need." Aoba replied twitching slightly at the disrespect in the strangers voice.

"Very well mission complete you can head home to Konohagakure now, like good children."

Both nins twitched at this but said nothing before leaping into the trees to continue on their way.

___Good now they're too irritated to notice me following, _Thought a very smug Belgarion as he shifted into his preferred alternate form, ___after all how is a wolf out of place in a forrest?_

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"Very well gentlemen," for indeed everyone else representing a clan or section of leaf society was male, well except Inuzaka Tsume, Tsunade spared a quick nod of recognition in her direction, "what is the council's ruling on this matter?"

The council had talked for some time and it finally came down to a straight vote, which waited only for the Hyuuga submission because three factions had formed in the family refusing to align with one another – the head family voted for, the branch against and the council of elders also against, however the Hyuuga were allowed only one vote as a clan and ultimately the head lost out.

The final vote of the villages representatives was against, by one vote. Tsunade shook slightly with frustration, "Very well the vote has decided that as a village you will not accept this man as a jounin or chuunin level member of our armed forces, therefore I chose to permit his entrance to our forces at gennin level, meeting adjourned."

There was an instant uproar, "Hokage-sama, this vote was as to whether or not we allowed this outsider to join this village at all, we have voted against and you would still ignore us?"

Tsunade turned to face the speaker, he was the representative of the medical nin's organization – a man she had trained alongside and had hated since her early twenties, "Yes Jouryu, as hokage it is within my rights to allow him entry to our forces at any rank I see fit, this vote was merely to help me maintain some sort of apearance of peace between the office of Hokage and the village council – since so many have voted against he will be a gennin and have the opportunity to gain your respect in the upcoming chuunin exam. Do try not to let your irrational hatred of myself cloud your opinion of one who could prove so valuable an asset to this village when that time comes."

With many curses amongst the 'against' the representatives filed out, Tsunade sighed heavilyand relaxed.

"So I'm supposed to be a gennin? A low ranked … beginner? That will be irritating you know."

Tsunade, startled violently, spun and struck out at the intruder. The intruder, grin never leaving his face and surrounded by his sandy brown hair – all in all quite attractive, as he tilted his head ever so slightly so the incoming fist sailed over his shoulder to strike the spherical gem on the pommel of his sword, and be burnt … but only mildly.

"ARGHHHH!" Tsunade howled in frustration, "YOU BASTARD! DON'T DO THAT!" she didn't stop flinging punches even as she healed the burns, for his part the young looking man evaded them all without dropping the grin.

"Hokage-sama!" Aoba and Izumo stood at the door (Genma was off duty today) then recognition dawned for Aoba "Kisama! Its you from last night!"

Belgarion, ducking one last punch, grinned even more broadly "Yo. Good to see everyone looking after our vain little girl."

"And I order you to stop calling me that!"

"I'll stop calling you vain when you stop using your youth genjutsu."

"And little girl?"

"When your at least one quarter of my age."

This was met with a cringe from the legendary medic and confusion from her less insubordinate subordinates, "Ewww, no thanks I don't think my jutsu can hold that long. Izumo fetch me Maito Gai, Aoba back to your post, oh and Gai will likely be in the outer office waiting to ask about my replacing his lost team member," _He has been every other day this week,_ "tell him I've found someone."

Both men nodded and left.

"So I'm now going to be a gennin under the …"

"The Azure beast of Konoha at your service my lady!" came the joyously energetic voice at the door.

"Ahh," Tsunade gestured, "this is Maito Gai, your new jounin-sensei," she could barely hold the grin threatening to form on her face as Gai, tallest man in the village at 197cm, looked up at his 210cm student.

Belgarion was impressed – from what he had observed the men of this world topped off in height at about six foot two and averaged about five eight – to see a man almost his own height and easily broader of shoulder.

"Gai's team is short a member, one student – Rock Lee – has just come back onto active duty after dangerous surgery in the last month and is recovering from injuries gained on his first mission back, another – Hyuuga Neji – received a life threatening chest wound on the same mission and has just been cleared to leave the hospital, as such the remaining member – Herikawa Tenten – was transferred to team seven since one of their members – Uchiha Sasuke – was lost as a result of that mission's failure, you replace her as weapons specislist. Gai, realistically he's way way above even normal jounin level, he is ranked gennin for political reasons … but you cant really tell his teammates that so we'll say we scouted him as a particularly skilled mercenary, and you … try to tone it down a bit and not make them suspicious of you." Tsunade handed three folders to each of them, "These two are dossiers for your new teammates, the third is the dossier on you they will receive, try not to exceed it to badly. Gai this is his actual dossier don't let his teammates see it, it is for your eyes only, and these are the toned down version for your students. Have fun boys." the Hokage dismissed the new student and sensei pair with a wave and a sadistic smile, obviously thinking about the possibility of them enjoying that much reading overnight.

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Belgarion approached the meeting site with confidence, he had read all three dossiers and knew his team's abilities and 'his own' Gai had warned that there would be a test to allow the students to compare his dossier to the real thing but nothing too troublesome.

Neji sat and meditated – he was finally clear for active duty and Gai had given him a part in today's exercise – it was quite relieving to be able to do things again. His eyes snapped open when the newcomer entered the clearing. He was tall, amazingly so, clad in a rust red cloak that concealed everything but his head and his feet and doubled over at the top for extra warmth, even if the dossier hadn't said he came from a colder region his clothes certainly had, but then there was the plate from a leaf forehead protector holding his cloak in place like a brooch.

Neji yawned slightly as Gai explained the rules of the first training – in order to become acquainted with their new teammates skills he would face Lee in a contest of taijutsu, no blades allowed. This was, supposedly,a real handicap for the newcomer as he obviously relied on that sword he carried while at Lee usually used kunai only as tools,rarely as weapons.

The boy, Neji believed him to be around seventeen, unbuckled the baldric that held his sword across his back and allowed it to drop after somehow absorbing the pommel stone into his right hand. Neji's byakugan indicated that it had not just been absorbed but actually made a part of his body … odd. There was odd movement under his cloak and the sound of two impacts so close they may have been mistaken for one, the boy walked forward and his cloak flowed over the ground to reveal two long hooked daggers point down in the turf where he had been standing. He bent forward slightly and charged Lee with impressive speed.

Lee discarded his kunai holster and prepared his defense for the oncoming foe, ready for a strike from any area under that cloak. But his opponent didn't strike at him, instead he got so close Lee nearly flinched at the impending collision before seeming to disappear completely leaving only a flying cloak in his place. Neji, of course, saw exactly what happened, the boy – clad now only in what looked like black leather armor, dull grey deer hide pants and heavy combat boots – dropped under his cloak and Lee's defense and spun around in a crouching position behind Lee and attempted to sweep his legs from under him with a powerful elbow, unfortunately it was also quite a clumsy attack and an obvious sign that while he could maneuver amazingly with or without his sword, his attacks without it were bellow par.

"Konoha seppu!"

Lee's foot tore through the air where the boy's head had been and came again at ankle height only to have the target roll quite acrobatically back over the attack to stop in just the right position for his cloak to fall back on his shoulders and cover him once more. _He evaded all of Lee's attacks? To do that and yet be so uncoordinated in unarmed combat he must have given as much to his sword as Lee has to his taijutsu … perhaps more. But what is it with his cloak?_

Lee threw a flurry of blows at eye watering speed, he was not surprised when only one in eight hit the target, after all he had already proven to be a master of evasion, what surprised Lee was that of the six blows that had hit the area he was targeting five had turned out to be ballooning patches of cloth that looked like they had body under them but did not and the sixth had been deflected by the shoulder of the leather armor. Lee changed tack and attacked different areas of the cloak, he was even more surprised to gain the same result.

Neji gasped at the boy's agility and cunning, he had first seen him avoid all bar one of nearly fifty attacks and take the one he did in a well armored location, then he had anticipated his opponent catching on and altered the pattern of his movement while moving his cloak in the same way as he first had, fooling his opponent into thinking the pattern was unchanged. Then Neji grinned, the boy had left himself open to one of Lee's more dangerous strategies, as he watched Belgarion took advantage of an opening to step behind Lee and strike the back of his knee … but then he bent and picked up a large rock? … Lee however did not see this Lee expected the text book blow to the back of the head and rotated on the knee now on the ground to launch his opponent skyward into the leaf shadow dance, following closely behind and preparing to improvise his own version of the shishi rendan in place of the initial lotus, after all it wouldn't do to kill a teammate, only to find that instead of his opponent's back he was facing a cloak-full of rock. His eyes widened as he felt a difference in air pressure behind him.

"Hi there, wanna see how this ends or wanna give up? If you give up now we can both land safely."

"I…I give up." Lee whispered with shame in his voice.

"Then we shall _be there._"

And as if at the boy's command, for in reality it was at the boy's command, both he and Lee stood on the ground where he had indicated, both upright and unharmed.

Neji was shocked, he had just seen someone use the kawarimi no jutsu without using any form of jutsu or chakra manipulation or ... anything, simply picking up an object and placing it in the path of Lee's attack to fool him, the rock had even been close enough in weight to fool Lee into leaping after it into the shadow dance position.

Gai smiled, _Good – enough to live up to the dossier but not so much as to make those two suspicious … plus I do believe I can see a motive for even more hard work in Lee's future._ But here Gai frowned slightly, after all Lee had recently taken a string of heavy defeats and Gai didn't want any depression on the cards.

"Alright round one completed in," Gai looked at his stop watch, "two minutes thirty eight, that means you have a two minute thirty eight head start Neji, starting … now! Go! With the passion of youth!" Gai grinned like a moron.

Neji sighed, the second test was to be tracking – Neji was to be given a head start of however long it took the fight against Lee to end and then the rules would be explained to Belgarion and he would set out to catch Neji, when found Neji would have to be subdued – not a hard task since his wound had yet to heal sufficiently to allow him to perform anything more than the most basic of basics in the jyuuken style let alone things as high ranking as the kaiten or rokujuuyon shou – and then brought back to Gai. Neji leapt for the trees and fled, determined to at least give as much challenge as his body would allow.

Belgarion fought back a yawn, Gai insisted upon turning this into a story, apparently Neji was a c-class missing nin just sighted in the village and he had been sent to catch him, since c-rank was not high enough to warrant on sight execution he had to capture the fugitive and return him to Konoha for questioning.

Belgarion 'hmmphhh'-ed and … melted into a large bird of prey, bunched his muscles and leapt into the skies.

Lee's eyes were wide, he hadn't believed this part of the dossier, but there it was right in front of him … flying away.

Gai suppressed the urge to curse, this had been listed under 'bloodline abilities' in the dossier for Lee and Neji and compared to some of the abilities in the dossier for Gai himself it was small game, but even so he didn't expect such a show of power in the first training session.

Belgarion's eagle eye (A/N: pardon the pun, and he's actually a hawk … anyway) sought out the running 'fugitive' and he changed back some two metres above the top of the tallest trees and called forth his sword (back in the clearing Gai and Lee both looked startled to see the discarded sword disappear from its scabbard) which seemed to crystallise out of the air before him, he reached out and attached the orb which had popped back out of his palm to the pommel and the blade sprang to life, lit base to tip with it's odd blue flame.

A bright blue streak descended before Neji and he saw too late it had cut the brach he was headed for clean from the tree. Preparing for a hard landing Neji scanned the ground with the byakugan and spotted Belgarion waiting on the forest floor within striking distance of where he would land, _Damn beaten already. _Neji's focus was not on landing with this distraction and he landed badly indeed, his right foot slipped placing great strain on his left, the pressure shot up his left side straight through his wound, blood burst from his mouth and leaked from the front and back of his chest.

Belgarion, eyes wide in shock but still calm with experience, dashed forward and picked the boy up and teleported 100 feet into the sky, from there his line of sight enabled him to be inside the hokage's office in two more teleports, still holding the coughing Neji.

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"TSUNADE!"

Tunade's head snapped around to face the noise and her eyes widened in reailsation of what had happened but she calmed immediately, "Lay him here." She ordered indicating a vacant spot on her desk.

Belgarion nodded and teleported did as he was told. Moments later it was done, Neji was fine and Tsunade was staring at him questioningly, "What?"

"You know you could have just applied a field dressing and taken him home, it wasn't exactly a major reversal of the healing jutsu."

"You expect me to trust your cell conversion technique?" here Belgarion nearly spat, "Realistically? Like hell, a style like that can be undone even by a mundane action."

Tsunade nearly growled at his assessment of one of her greatest healing skills, sighed heavily and turned to face a still prone Neji, "You will be cleared for active duty in five days as previously planned, don't worry about his comments – he is merely distrustful of jutsu healing. But I must insist you take more seriously your doctor's order not to strain youself until the jutsu finishes integrating with your body. Dismissed both of you."

Both nodded and left Tsunade's office.

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On arrival at the training area they found Gai lecturing Lee on new trainings that might be used to surpass this new rival, Belgarion grinned to himself when he noted that none seemed to involve a few millennia of experience. Gai looked up as they entered the clearing and noted a few facts.

"Ahh well done Neji, I see you circled round in the direction of the village to confuse then enemy, NICE," thumbs up congratulations pose, "but why are you following unresisting? I thought I said he had to subdue you and bring you back."

"A ninja must know when he is overmatched, and with this injury," Neji touched his chest, he had noticed earlier that Tsunade's healing jutsu had also caused him to reabsorb the lost blood, "and the way he fought Lee? I was overmatched."

"Alright training complete! Four hundred laps around the training grounds and you may go home for the night!" and with that Gai began to discuss strategy with Lee once more.

Just as his first lap was taking him out of hearing range Belgarion paused and called back, "You know, in my country we have a saying: 'When faced with a formation you cannot counter, duplicate it, when faced with a weapon you cannot hope to stand against, steal it and when faced with an enemy you cannot defeat, make him your ally.', just a thought."

On the second lap Gai and Lee were discussing this saying and trying to figure out if Bekgarion had just offered Lee training in that style. As he passed to the edge of hearing Belgarion paused and spoke once more, "But an enemy will not teach your men his strategy, you must duplicate it on your own, an enemy will not give you his weapons, you must take them, an enemy will not become an ally by invitation alone, you must convince him."

On the third lap he over heard Gai and Lee discussing what sort of cloak would best match their current … stylish … attire. Belgarion shook his head and chose not to stop and say anymore, he wasn't quite sure what sort of trouble he had got himself into as it was.

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Three hunrede and ninety seven laps later Belgarion found himself eating ramen in a fairly quiet restaurant when he sensed something he had not sensed for millennia, something he had only ever encountered on his home world, something he was not at all happy to be encountering here. He sensed a human in control of a demon's energy.

Looking around he was unable to locate the source of this disturbance. He sighed and finished his bowl.

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"Ero-senin! We just walked PAST the ramen shop! I want raaaaaammmeeeeeennnn!"

"Can it brat I'm leaving Konoha now and if you want to follow me and be trained up in time for the next chuunin exam then shut up and follow, stupid kid." Jiraiya sighed heavily.

Naruto looked back with desperate longing but remained quiet and followed the perverted old man to the edge of the village wondering why so much rush, Ero-senin had never been in such a rush that they couldn't stop for even ONE bowl of ramen.

Jiraiya looked carefully from left to right, wary of faces he didn't recognize. Tsunade had warned him to take Naruto on a training journey as soon as possible, since there was a new nin in the village whose known skills included the summoning, control and slaying of demons. _Best to just leave quickly, it's almost a given that he would sense the kyubi healing Naruto right now if we ran into him._

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Belgarion pushed the thought to the back of his mind, there were no demon masters here, he hadn't found one in over a millennia and a half since he left his home why would one show up now? He paid his bill and left the stand.

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MUHAHAHA Worship me for i am putting out versions of my previous chapters with errors corrected!!

If youre extra nice i could even put out chapter fifteen !!!


	2. Belief and denial

Warnings: Crossover, maybe main character death, haven't decided, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga. Also when I use Japanese words I wont stick on an 's' when it refers to a plural, Japanese has no indicator for plurals so the words are the same for one or many. (like fish, one fish, 13 billion fish. See? It was the same word just indicating more). Oh and Belgarion is getting kinda ooc but I suppose 2000 years will do that to you.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm. And I aint posting this at the start of each chapter so you can damn well read it in chapter 1 and stop whinge-ing at me!(… oh … well … I seem to have posted it at the start of chapter 2 as well…)

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Belgarion waited for Neji's arrival, he had been surprised to find Gai and Lee at the meeting place already when he arrived … half an hour early. They seemed to have been there all night, only their new purchases told onlookers they had at very least been down to the village since training broke up yesterday. 

Ahh yes, the … packages, they had been wrapped so that Belgarion could not tell what was inside, that was, however, redundant since Lee had earlier opened his at one end to admire Gai's 'impeccable' fashion sense. Horrid green silk hung out.

Neji arrived, ten minutes early, and sighed heavily at the sight of Gai and Lee in such excited conversation. "What makes you two so sure he was even offering to teach you two?" typical Neji not even a greeting first.

Belgarion's eyes widened slightly, he hadn't been listening to the conversation for nearly twenty minutes and he seemed to have missed some fairly important bits, but then he grinned. If everyone was here then there was no point hiding in the trees was there?

"I wasn't."

Gai and Lee turned and looked oh so very shocked, but in a youthful manner of course, Neji merely nodded a greeting. Belgarion dropped to the forest floor and wandered over.

"What I was in fact doing was attempting to point out that working off this principal you could easily create a style that would mesh well with your existing one, but the one I use, and thus the one I would teach, would not match in the manner you hope."

"Very well, would you take it amiss if I were to suggest you spend today training with Neji so that Lee and myself might devote some time to this new style?"

Belgarion's head snapped up, Gai's tone and manner of speech had just changed so greatly that it took him a moment to register what was said and an even longer moment to notice that Lee and Neji didn't seem to have noticed the change. With a heavy sigh Belgarion resigned himself to a day of manly bonding with the Hyuuga, when a voice changed like that he knew the prophecy was dropping a none too subtle hint.

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"Lead the way white eyes, I'm sure you know somewhere near we can indulge in some light sparring."

"… White eyes?" Neji did not seem impressed.

"Of course, I've picked a descriptive for each of you, yours is white eyes."

"Really … and for Lee and Gai?" Neji was twitching slightly.

"Eyebrows and eyebrows-junior of course."

Neji sniggered to himself and left the clearing in the direction of another not to far away. Nothing else was said on the way there, nothing was said as they began to spar, nothing was said during the first rest break of the day.

Then, in the midst of the second round of sparring, just as he began to counter one of Neji's assaults, Belgarion spoke.

"Tell me Neji," a high blow forcing Neji to snap out of the distraction and duck, "in what do you believe?" a low sweep delayed Neji's answer a moment.

"Believe?" Neji's voice was slightly stressed as he focused on the fight, keeping a web of chakra holding his wound in a good condition and now this new line of questioning.

"Gai believes in Lee," a vicious hook kick from the right, "Lee believes in Gai," a sweeping feint from the left, "both believe in hard work and perseverance," a series of rotations, a blow coming at a different height in each, "in what do you believe?" a final, thrusting backward kick crushing Neji's guard against his chest and propelling him several metres back. Belgarion stood, back to Neji, almost taunting him to retaliate as he spoke.

Neji snorted and charged, palm at the ready, "I used to, I don't anymore however." Neji lashed out at the turned back.

The back was no longer turned. Neji gasped to find his hand caught centimetres from his target, held securely in Belgarion's left hand. His right hand came up to grip Neji's elbow, fiery pain shot up Neji's arm and through his body. Belgarion walked forward, forcing Neji back and talking as he went.

"Then what DID you believe in Hyuuga Neji?"

Neji broke the hold and charged forward once more hoping to gain some space by forcing the other man back, Neji struck out and closed tenketsu across his opponents chest. Neji grimaced at the thought of what he had been before encountering Naruto, "Fate." One word only, about average for Neji.

Belgarion grinned widely as Neji's eyes widened at seeing the tenketsu he was sure he had struck still open. "Like trying to close Lee's tenketsu isn't it?" Belgarion grinned even wider at the boy's reaction.

"Can't use nin- or gen-jutsu? … technically not, certainly I can't use them in the way they are defined by shinobi. Now white eyes, how come you 'used to' believe in fate, but 'don't' now?" one hand raised just out of the confines of the cloak, a defensive stance, waiting for Neji to respond to his question and knowing he would respond to the failure of his technique first.

One hand swept the air before him leaving a patch of chakra in its wake, the other flicked a kunai just under the patient chakra toward his foe. Neji grinned as his kunai took flight, "I had someone deliver me a painful message on the reality of an unchangeable destiny," Neji grimaced as rather than catching the kunai and throwing it back as he had hoped his target chose to simply evade the object, "or rather he showed me that he had changed his fate and cast his given destiny aside and surpassed the future everyone saw was allotted to him." Neji was happily surprised to find the dagger had been returned his way after all since his target had let the weapon pass him before catching it and flicking it around his body to fly just where Neji had hoped he would aim. "And what is it that you place YOUR faith in?" The kunai stuck in the thickened chakra cloud and Neji passed his hand over it as quickly as he could, ejecting large amounts of chakra as he went, it would not propel the kunai like the kaiten would have but it would have to do until he was healed. "The gods of this country you keep referring to?"

Neji fell onto the ground, his byakugan deactivating against his will from his sheer exhaustion before he could even see the kunai begin it's flight or his opponent's reaction. _Damn even injured I should hold up longer than this. Hmmm, still too weak. Too weak to defy my fate like he did his._ After a moment of silence Neji began to fear he may have over done it and wounded or killed his sparring partner.

"…No." Came the reply, halting Neji's efforts to muster the strength to lift his head. "I know the gods of my homeland exist, I've met each of them. My master - wise Aldur, Belar - native god of my people, Chaldan - proud god of the Arends, Nedra - god of my wife's people, Mara – the crying god of the race that died, Issa - snake god of the poisonous NyIssans, Ul – father of the gods, Eriond – the god who came last and chose all the forsaken people and Torak – dragon god of Angarak, hated enemy, slain foe. No, once you know they exist they stop being objects of belief." This last was said with some sorrow, as if longing for a return to those simple faiths.

"…Then what?" Neji was beginning to regain some strength but still not enough to lift himself to a sitting position, he chose not to waste what little he had turning his head and further than necessary to breath, but he could not stop himself from asking.

Belgarion snorted ironically, "Fate, well actually prophesy, THE prophecy. Although it is a very different belief to the one you have described."

"Really? How so? " Neji let sarcasm sneak into his voice. "Fate is fate. No matter what you call it."

"But prophecy is not. The prophecy simply creates a path, those that chose to follow it – consciously or not – are rewarded, those that do not are left to fend for themselves in the real world with no support. Some would say that they were punished, however simply having a reward withheld is not a punishment. Those who make that decision either possess such knowledge and power they can distance themselves from the struggle or they have decided to accept the rewards of the other prophecy, those that are unaware never go against the prophecies the choices available to them are never neutral and always serve one prophecy or another and they reap the rewards unknowingly. You for example did such a great service to the prophecy of light that you now stand before me … well sit but anyway … you live and breathe and fight despite the fact you should have died then and there. However when you chose not to surrender to Kidomaru and instead fight for his defeat you chose to fight for the prophecy, when you made that choice you gained the favor of the light. So when you took that blow so you could deliver a fatal one in return the light made certain that the blow you took would not be instantly fatal and that you would live long enough to be saved."

Footsteps left the clearing leaving Neji alone to consider his new teammates words.

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_Oh my god what was I thinking? I only meant to find out some things about the kid now I've openly scolded his lack of faith. _

Belgarion shook his head and wondered if it was the prophesy speaking through him or his own growing mental instability that had caused that little speech. In the end he gave up and began the trek back to the training area.

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Gai and Lee looked in his direction as he entered the clearing before returning to their efforts. Both sweating slightly from the work they had obviously put into this new style, both wearing green silk cloaks with a red band at waist height (right where their belts were) and a sickeningly bright orange band from the hem to about the height their leg warmers reached. Apparently they had decided to stick with their … winning formula and make the cloaks look just like their normal outfits. Eyes watering at the sight Belgarion suddenly felt the paranoid urge to check and make sure his own cloak was still its old rusty red … it was.

As he watched the dynamic duo (or was that tragic twosome?) train for several minutes before letting his mind wander. It hadn't gone too far when the problem of how to approach Lee about his nin and genjutsu usage raised its ugly head once more. It had troubled him all night, he didn't want a student, especially not one so very … Gai like. But still if the reason was, as the dossier had indicated, the same as the reason for his own troubles in that department had been when he first arrived here on this world … he couldn't really not tell Lee about the solution he had discovered.

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By the end of this line of thought he had found no solution and it was time for another 400 laps and the walk home. Today Lee ate at the ramen bar too, the silence was … odd – both were quite happy to share the silence, but both had something they seemed to want to say as well. Finally, as he put down his empty bowl, Belgarion spoke, "Lee, were you able to complete the water walking exercise?"

Lee was silent a moment before whispering in an ashamed little voice, "No, I just can't get the chakra to leave my body."

"I see …"

"Hey … today Neji said …" Lee stopped as he looked up and saw all that remained of his companion were the empty bowl and the handful of coins the owner was sweeping into his hand from the countertop.

Lee also paid and left the ramen stand, about twenty steps beyond the stand a voice called out.

"Lee, go home, do whatever you do at home for a while. I have some business to attend to for a bit. Then come to the spot where the river passes close to the east gate in an hour, if I'm there I will teach you something, if I am not then my business has taken longer than it should and I will see you at training tomorrow morning." It wa Belgarion's voice.

"Thank you … see you in an hour?" Lee was slightly confused and forgot to ask his previous question but he left for home happily.

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Belgarion wondered why he had just said that to Lee, his plan had been to spend a few hours here to see if the demonic presence from last night would return, but now … now he would probably wind up having to teach Lee. Realistically he knew he couldn't keep the technique from Lee, but still he regretted committing himself to teaching the boy right this very night. Now the only reason he would have to delay this training was if he encountered the demon and spent more than an hour dealing with it … well it was something to hope for.

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Unfortunately for Belgarion, Naruto was currently on his was to the rain country with Jiraiya, some sort of training journey, they would take the long way … via the wind, and probably earth and waterfall countries as well. It would be a while indeed before Belgarion encountered the demon again … after all despite the grand travel plan they had barely made it to the border of the leaf territory within the fire country so far.

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An hour later Lee walked up to the river bank and looked around, no sign of his teammate. Lee looked downcast, it looked like that business was taking longer than expected, he would have to wait until tomorrow to ask about Neji's comment. 

"Well, well, right on time I see." Lee jumped slightly at the voice.

"Belgarion-san …" he began.

"Belgarion will do, I don't really grasp the formalities of this place yet."

"This afternoon Neji mentioned that he had tried to close your tenketsu, he also said that his blows had no effect, that your tenketsu don't work properly … like mine."

Belgarion sighed. "Yes, like yours my tenketsu don't come in contact with my chakra circulatory system."

Lee's eyes widened, "Then you also can't use ninjutsu?"

A slight grin formed on Belgarion's face, "Actually I can, that's rather what I asked you to come and talk about."

Lee's mouth fell partway open, "You mean I could …?"

"Yeah, the concept is really simple too … you just need create a leak in your circulatory system."

Lee froze, unmoving trying to understand what was said… _A hole on my circulatory system?_

"Now, gather all for the chakra in your body into your left leg, make sure it's all there and that your not allowing it to be used for anything, it is just being stored there rather than the rest of your body."

What followed was nearly fifteen minutes of concentration on Lee's part. "Ughh, I can't stop it being used." Belgarion remained silent, then ten minutes later Lee panted, "I've … I've got it …" then Lee turned white, his eyes widened and he clenched his teeth in pain.

Belgarion eyed him carefully before speaking, "Good, now raise your leg and stomp heavily onto the ground, without letting any chakra be used up in the stomp."

Lee did as he was bidden, lifting his left leg with great care not to disturb the balance of the chakra there, Lee steeled himself for the impact and brought his foot down. There was a violent scream and Lee rolled on the soil of the river bank, an enormous spray of chakra pouring from his leg, visible even to normal eyes.

As Lee calmed down enough to hear, Belgarion spoke, "It will require much less chakra next time, and it will cause a more bearable amount of pain. Repeat the process with your right leg when you regain the strength to stand… but hurry, it's getting close to the time when all young ninjas should be in bed. See you tomorrow." And with that Belgarion left the clearing and Lee behind for the night.

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Miles away another boy worked himself through a painful exercise. Naruto stared at the miniature rasengan on the tip of his finger. It had taken two days to get this far, now he needed to make another on his second finger. His concentration wavered momentarily and suddenly he found himself with two out of control rasengan, chopping up his fingers.

As the sudden burst of chakra dissipated Naruto looked at his fingers to find them badly cut and bleeding, pieces of bone showing for a moment before the kyubi healed the wounds. He sighed and started over.

Jiraya snorted quietly in his sleep.

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Gai was worried. Lee was late for training.

Well, not actually late as such just not as early as usual. Certainly not so late that it would warrant a search. Gai was worried.

Lee arrived a scant twenty minutes early, just as Neji entered the clearing from the other side. Gai was shocked to see Lee, he was looking extremely tired and seemed to be trying to limp with both legs. Lee had only ever arrived in such a bad condition twice before and both times had been the day after he learned a new step in the lotus. Gai looked at his student's determination and the look of grudging approval on the face of his new student and realised the assumption Neji made last night was probably correct. Neji had told Gai that Belgarion was like Lee, and that he could use ninjutsu despite this, the he had pointed out that he might opt to teach this skill to Lee due to their shared situation.

"Excuse me sensei, could I just take Lee off for a quick chat?"

Gai was momentarily startled but nodded his ascent. He watched as Belgarion took Lee aside and began to speak and make odd gestures, Lee didn't say anything just nodding his understanding once in a while. Belgarion brushed down his upper arms with his finger tips then he indicated a point half way up his forearm, the gesture was finalized as he slammed his palms together. Lee nodded, wincing slightly as if at the memory of some past pain.

The two began to return, still talking as they walked. As they came closer Gai was able to hear then end of their conversation, "don't bother trying to learn jutsu from other shinobi, most rely on hand seals to create precise patterns using the circulatory system in the hands, your chakra will need to flow outside of them. If you find a jutsu that only relies on control of the chakra and no seals at all you could learn it but mostly you will have to create your own, you can however make use of chakra control exercises like water walking and tree climbing, but I'm not going to teach you. Maybe later on, after you master those I might consider teaching you something more but …"

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Once more Neji found himself facing the significantly taller boy (Neji still refused to acknowledge him as anything other than a boy), sparing to get into shape for the new missions in three days. Gai watched with some interest, his attempts to create a new style postponed while Lee practiced some odd concentration technique, hands and arms stiff in front of his body unmoving for the last five minutes.

Neji observed his opponent once more, he seemed to be calmly waiting for Neji to make the first move but the byakugan indicated that Belgarion was doing the same thing as Lee, chakra was gathering halfway up his forearms but unlike Lee he seemed quite relaxed, even idly twitching his fingers and scratching his stomach. Neji decided to charge before whatever was going on was completed.

Neji paused as a light gash appeared on his forward hand, _Oh yes, blades are allowed for this training session._ The two hooked daggers flew past Neji's head and stuck in the ground behind him, then Belgarion drew the large sword across his back. Neji backed up for a moment and then felt slightly insulted as his opponent discarded his weapon apparently to give him a chance, the sword stood point down in the soil so Neji did a hasty check with the byakugan to make sure the sword or the knives weren't being used for some sneaky jutsu, they weren't.

Belgarion leapt, his foot scything toward Neji's head brutally. Neji ducked and barely registered a confused thought before beginning his counter, _wasn't he supposed to be clumsy without that sword? _Suddenly a scream of pain echoed through the clearing, Lee rolled on the grass in agony, chakra flowing from his hands like a luminescent fountain. Neji's eyes widened as Belgarion brought his palms together sharply and chakra began to pour from his hands as well.

The third finger of each hand curled in to block the tenketsu on his palm, Neji was shocked (poor Neji is gonna suffer a heart attack being the only one who can see what's going on all the time) the chakra now stuck in Belgarion's arms was filling the space in his flesh completely, flowing free of his inner coils.

Belgarion's right hand snaked out and grasped the pommel of his sword and allowed half of the accumulated chakra to escape, the area between the daggers and sword, which had been devoid of activity moments before, lit up with power and formed a barrier, confining Neji to a very small space.

Next Belgarion's left hand touched the soil just inside the field and discharged the last of the stored chakra, the area inside the barrier filled with flying stones and dust, Neji was forced to deactivate the Byakugan and blink some larger particles from his eyes, as he opened them he felt a slight pressure at his neck, one of those daggers.

"Well round two to me, wanna stop for a rest and see what Lee's up to?"

Neji sighed in irritation, "Fine."

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Naruto sat, head bowed flinching slightly at Jiraiya's yelling. He had finally managed two finger size rasengan and when trying for his third he had lost control and the disturbance had gotten Jiraiya caught peeping at the public baths. Jiraiya continued to rant, Naruto continued to wonder if this trip was really for training.

Jiraiya looked at the sun, _Damn too late to leave now, guess we'll have to spend another night in the leaf territory. _It was a good thing it was nearly half a year to the chuunin exam, plenty of time even if they spent two days in EVERY village on the way.

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muhahaha chapter two - now digitally remastered and improved for your viewing pleasure 


	3. Mission and tragedy

Warnings: Crossover, maybe main character death, haven't decided, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga. Also when I use Japanese words I wont stick on an 's' when it refers to a plural, Japanese has no indicator for plurals so the words are the same for one or many. (like fish, one fish, 13 billion fish. See? It was the same word just indicating more). Oh and Belgarion is getting kinda ooc but I suppose 2000 years will do that to you.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Rant: sorry this is late I got back about 5 days ago but ive only written … less than a thousand words so far. But that's cos I spent two days at ccgl(gamers LAN) and they had a 1.4 TB anime server and ive been watching ranma ½ and air master ever since. Still I was quite proud to find that over half of the anime there had been leeched from me at prior LANs (I can tell because I change the filenames when I finish a series and most of the folders had my initials in them.). im also kinda drunkish atm and I cant type fastly – it took me about 5 minutes for the rant section. And can some one volunteer to beta for me please? Im too … lazy to do it my self. And I keep getting distracted by toast-nii making a GC sader on the pc next to me. 

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Chapter begin nyo.

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Belgarion stared upward at the sky and cursed inwardly, still the fact Neji had been able to capitalize on his growing carelessness and claim a decisive victory spoke highly of the boy. Of course Belgarion saw what had gone wrong now, but hindsight was like that – understanding _after_ the event. Over the course of the week Neji had made a complete recovery, his skill in training had not improved from his wounded state however and Belgarion had come to accept this as his full strength. This morning with Tsunade's announcement that his recovery was complete Neji had stopped hiding the strength he had regained and punished this assumption mercilessly. 

Belgarion had discovered that the byakugan could see the nervous system just as well as it could see the inner coils and that, coincidentaly, there was a sequence of exactly sixty four pressure points that had resulted in the entire left half of Belgarion's body being rendered next to useless. Still it was his own fault, when it was announced that he was within Neji's field of divination Belgarion had chosen to take the hits knowing his chakra would be unaffected in the hope of finding an opening at the end of the rokujuuyon shou.

"Well done, if nothing else has then this matchs had given me the confidence to go on the sort of missions required to qualify for this exam with this team."

"Hrmph," Neji turned to leave.

"WHOOOOAAA! THE POWER OF YOUTH TRIUMPHS ONCE MORE!" Howled Gai … dancing … at the edge of the clearing, "EXCELLENT MY PROMISING YOUTHS! Unfortunately I must order a stop to this training so you can come for the briefing on tomorrow's mission."

Belgarion struggled to rise and was surprised to find Neji offering a hand, a carefully blank look covered his face but it seemed to Belgarion that he had earned his teammate's respect, or at least a little.

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The three gennin sat before Gai as he briefed them, Neji because he always sat during briefings – meditating on each new piece of mission data as it was presented, Belgarion sat because he had still failed to get a satisfactory response from his left leg since the match with Neji and Lee because his training left him with no useable limbs until after three hours of rest for each two of training – with six hours this morning mastering the foreign concept of external chakra control it would be well into the night before he could do more than sit and look attentive. 

"You each know that to enter a chuunin exam in another village you must firstly not be at open war with them, which we are fortunately not with any hidden village other than sound, and secondly the host village will set a number of missions you must have completed to qualify, Konohagakure may simply require a recommendation from a known jounnin but Kirigakure had quite a strict requirement. Fortuitously we have been assigned a 'special A' ranked mission, the completion of which will mean you three pass the hidden mist's entry requirements easily. Fortune smiles upon my shining youths!" Gai nodded as if at a job well done.

" 'special A' rank?" Lee looked concerened.

"Our client has requested a joint mission requiring two squads, the first team – an ANBU squad to be sent with us – is to assassinate an enemy general, the second – us – is to repulse enemy commando teams and block spies until the ANBU's job is complete, both teams will share one medic nin. At worst we will face B rank opposition, however due to the assassination team's presence this will be marked onto your records as an A ranked mission – instant qualification for any chuunin exam in any village." Gai paused for breath … or possibly dramatic effect, "due to the high level of this mission I must order no training at all is to take place until after it's completion." Stern look at Lee, "We assemble at the east gate, 6:00 hours. Enjoy the relaxation time this afternoon, I want you all rested and of sound condition in time to leave." And with a particularly shiny smile Gai vanished.

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Jiraiya calmly held six Rasengan in one hand and looked over at Naruto shaking slightly but also maintaining one miniature Rasengan on each finger and one full sized in the centre of his palm. Jiraiya also began to sweat as he closed his fingers in on the central Rasengan and allowed the smaller ones to distort it until it was an oval shape, extending some forty centimeters beyond his normal reach. He nodded to Naruto. 

Naruto duplicated this motion … to a point, then all six Rasengan exploded and made mulch of the skin on Naruto's arm all the way to the elbow, Naruto blacked out as Kyuubi chakra began to heal the wounds, although none was being used to dull the pain anymore.

Jiraiya nodded and banished his own Rasengan very carefully, however the last one lost control and cut a deep gash in the back of his wrist guard.

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Belgarion sat and listened to Lee's concerned chatter and tried not to notice Neji's growing irritation. 

"But B-ranked opposition? Can we face that? It means there could be jounin amongst the enemy you know." Lee looked quite concerned.

Belgarion looked over at the ANBU squad discussing strategy with Gai and knew from ever wince and every annoyed expression that they could hear Lee's idea of quiet conversation from where they sat, they didn't seem too happy about his constant chatter.

Two minutes twenty three seconds out of Konoha Lee suddenly became a new man, silent and focused on the coming mission. The four ANBU suddenly looked relieved, as if they understood the kind of fighter Lee was by this change and had significantly more confidence in him, the medic however smiled and began to collect what seemed to be the profits of a wager from the ANBU squad.

"This is what you got me? I'm sorry Hideya but I can't have confidence in someone who is still a gennin and nearly out of his teens."

Gai nearly snorted from his position at attention on one end of the ANBU squad, they were being assessed by their new employer – a rebel faction trying to form a new nation separate from their native Tsuchikuni just as Takigakure had done years before. However unlike the hidden waterfall rebellion who had numbered many nins from both mist and stone, this new rebel force numbered mostly farmers and regular soldiers and had very few shinobi indeed. The gennnin had been assigned guard duty immediately upon arrival and the ANBU, Gai and the medic were being briefed and inspected and prepared for their assignments all at once.

"Commander Hokage-sama herself selected the teams for this mission – a poor selection results in no gain for Konoha and the loss of shinobi that Konoha cannot afford to sacrifice – do you truly believe that at first sight you can make a better judgement than her?"

Gai tried to squint at his own mouth, fortunately he failed or he would have been blinded by his own teeth, before he realized that it was not him but the young medic who had spoken. In hind sight this did not surprise, the young boy did have a reverence of Tsunade reminiscent of a worshipful peasant at the end of a long pilgrimage.

The rebel leader sized up the young man professionally and nodded, the man was no shinobi but he was a leader of men, and a good judge of the those placed under his command. "Two days after we sent our agents out to hire you enemy spies confessed under torture that Tsuchikuni has fielded a similarly composed group and that while their ANBU are without a doubt stone-nins their gennin team was scouted from another of the great five hidden villages, since we know its not Stone and we assume Leaf would not send two of their own teams into direct conflict with one another, that leaves Suna, Kiri and Kumo gakure. We tried to gain better information but we stopped sending spies when the Earth country armies started sending them back, some were utterly destroyed by Doton-jutsus, others had all of their bones broken, violent poisons destroying their internal organs, fatal cuts that refused to bleed, and three have been returned as a fine paste of powdered bone and flesh, once we only got back or agent's hair and three fingers tied to his heart. All our spies in the enemy camp are accounted for now. Still we returned the favor and sent back corpses of all the agents we could root out.

"And so plans change," He faced the ANBU. "you four will be placed in command of our internal intelligence staff their deployment and orders at your discretion but we must be secure against assault by that ANBU squad by sunset and free of enemy spies as soon as possible," now facing the medic boy, "we number no medic-nins and rely on normal healing sciences, head down to the infirmary and request the stocking of any supplies you may need." Finally facing Gai, "we have also discovered that the enemy gennin team possess skills that make them suited to open combat the next time our regular armies meet on the field and we believe that unchecked they could deal more damage to our forces than any single unit of the enemy army. It is my hope that your gennin can balance this threat until the camp is once more secure enough to send out the ANBU. Your Hokage has named you as the most senior ranking member of this delegation so the final deployment of your medic will be in your hands, the enemy prepare another push tomorrow or the next day from the west we believe the opposing gennin will make their appearance there. I am sorry for the change and the additional time these changes will keep you from home, the additional mission fees will be sent back to the Hokage with you when you return."

Gai looked thoughtfully at the medic he now had to deploy, "Are you a combat medic? Or do you prefer to serve as a doctor or surgeon?" as with Lee, Gai had lost his boisterous passion as it had transformed into a disturbingly single minded mission focus, even his speech patterns had changed.

"err … my specialty is jutsu surgery but I am combat ready."

"Alright then you are assigned to the hospital to treat any Konoha nin injured in camp as highest priority and to be ready for my team when we deploy against the enemy."

"But what of the ANBU squad?" the poor lad seemed genuinely puzzled.

"… you were part of the team that performed the jutsu sealing the hole in Neji's chest weren't you?"

The medic nodded, happy to be remembered since Neji's continued survival was one of his greatest achievements as a medic.

"And you didn't notice that the person who lead that Jutsu is currently leading that ANBU squad?" the man opened his mouth in shock but Gai held up one hand, "their normal leader is on leave and Tsunade-sama has assigned Shizune-san to them as replacement until the end of this mission, you are as of now forbidden to mention this to them as Shizune is here to assess them for promotion and would prefer them not to know. Dismissed … and thank you for Neji."

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Neji, Lee and Belgarion stared on in awe as the powerful warrior leading the smaller enemy force lay about himself with daggers, needles and the occasional poisoned gas grenade, rapidly thinning the rebel force down to equal numbers with his own forces. Arrows clattered off his skin, swords didn't chip his flesh at all the only wound apparent upon him was where a morning star had cracked some sort of armor on his forearm. 

"Ok then, I'll see what I can do about liberating a horse and cutting down some cavalry, Neji gets to take down the spearmen on our right flank and Lee gets the tall fellow leading the assault. Any objections?"

Lee slammed his palms together and began to meditate and build up chakra flow through the circle of his upper body, Neji nodded and charged into the fray on their right, trying to push deep enough that the kaiten would not harm their own forces. Belgarion sighed before drawing his sword and dashing toward th nearest enemy cavalryman. The man's torso fell off the horse backwards while his head and right arm fell to one side, Belgarion leapt into the saddle and took off toward a mass of horsemen and selected a target near the outside.

"Kaiten!"

The bodies of unfortunate spearmen flew in all directions, several horsemen were thrown as their mounts reared in terror, the one nearest Belgarion was even unhorsed by a flying corpse. Allied troops cheered and the enemy fell back in disarray all along the right flank. _So all we need is a morale boost then?_ Belgarion sighted on a group of fleeing horse- and pike-men and prepared a spell he had learned on a world he had visited quite early in his travels, he didn't like to use the will and the word against foes not worthy of his full powers so he had learned many new skills and magics in his travels, this one was more for show than anything else but it would definitely make the men more confident.

"Explosion array!"

A circle of about 3 meters in radius formed on the ground and erupted into a vertical beam, limbs and bodies fell amongst the enemy and now the entire right flank retreated in terror.

"Juk kruz!"

A storm of sharp branches and poisonous leaves raged amongst the rearmost ranks of the retreating forces just as a second kaiten launched bloodied corpses at their retreating backs.

Suddenly there was a clear path from the edge of the fray to the enemy's invincible commander and like a bolt of glowing blue chakra Lee was there, left hand resting gently in the middle of his target's chest. There was a dull thud and a vicious blast of shrapnel wounded many on the field as the supposedly invincible warrior at the head of the army exploded into splinters and lumps of wood, Lee's eyes widened, _Kawarimi? … no._ Lee picked up one half of his opponent's face, it was made of wood. _Wood means puppet, puppet means … Kankurou, Kankurou means Gaara!_ Lee grinned viciously, this time he was better prepared to face Gaara and in good physical condition as well, he would not loose.

"Kuroari! Damn you leaf boy!"

Suddenly Lee was assaulted by the puppet Karasu while powerful winds battered Neji and Belgarion and walls of sand concealed the gennins from the view of either army, in another moment Temari and Gaara of the sand faced Neji and Belgarion while Kankurou still flailed madly in rage at Lee. Neji fell into the standard jyuuken stance while Belgarion's eyes widened at the demonic chakra surrounding them, then he began to concentrate as Gaara raised one hand.

"Sabakuu …"

"Seal!"

At Belgarion's shout a large magic circle was imprinted heavily around Gaara's feet and instantly all the sand out side the circle stopped being a demonic weapon and became normal sand as Gaara lost the power to control it, the sand inside writhed and raged and slammed against the invisible walls that blocked the passage of demonic chakra. Belgarion suddenly remembering how badly he was exceeding the skills attributed to him in the dossier used a simple mental exercise to force himself unconscious in his saddle. The effect was enough however as Kankurou paused his assault on Lee from sheer shock and received a konoha seppu for his efforts while Neji calmly announced that Temari was within the range of his divination.

The attacking force of the Earth country had already retreated by the time Gaara's sand wall had hit the ground. Temari and Kankurou pulled back a little and fled once it was apparent that inside the circle Gaara could still destroy anyone attempting to harm him. Lee fell to the ground and writhed as the endorphins in his system died off and all those splinters under his skin and bruises from the explosion of the puppet hit him at once in a wave of pain. The three gennin were carried back to camp as heroes leaving only Gaara standing in the middle of the battle ground howling in rage and a few soldiers assigned to get word back to the nin's in camp should the seal be broken.

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Neji sat alone on duty, Belgarion would regain consciousness and be back on duty within the hour according to the doctors, the young medic they had bought with them had spent three hours working on Lee before announcing that he would need time to grow back at least three layers of shin before he could be allowed out of hospital before he had also gone to sleep for the night. The ANBU squad and Gai had immediately been sent out to complete their mission once word of the afternoon's victory had reached camp. 

So it was that Neji's byakugan were the only pair of eyes that detected the two stone ANBU entering the commander's tent at around midnight, he did not hurry as the commander didn't sleep in his own tent but none the less Neji needed a way to occupy two hostile ANBU until help arrived before they moved on to search other tents. Neji employed the only strategy that had defeated him in the past, he charged in and hoped that sheer random assault would unbalance his foes long enough for him to gain some insight into their abilities, at the same time he knew he couldn't – at the high end of the scale ninja battles were over in a moment, endurance was only tested when each combatant's skill was almost identical, against ANBU he could maybe gain ten seconds, but then ten seconds to a true shinobi were like an eternity.

Neji charged into then tent and was amazed to find himself almost within striking distance of one foe already, _Three steps…two steps,_ the masked face tilted toward Neji in surprise, _one step! Its too late for you!_ Neji lashed out and struck with the full force of his physical strength and his jyuuken. The enemy, a woman of middle age to judge by her figure, shifted to escape and the blow only struck an arm instead of a vulnerable position, but weeks of learning to eke every last scrap of power from a body not at its best capabilities coupled with six days facing an opponent against whom a glancing blow came as frequently as a one hit kill against anyone else allowed Neji to maximize the damage to the site of his attack and the ANBU dropped to the floor in pain. Neji's byakugan saved him as he dropped to evade a hooking kick to the head and thrust backward with a powerful kick that met with a satisfying crunch and a stumble from his opponent.

Suddenly around Neji appeared the field of divination, quite a rare occurrence since rather than Neji having to force an opening as he always had in the past, an opening had occurred and he had instinctively recognized it. Neji wondered at the odd stance his body slipped into until he noticed that the divination field referred not to the kneeling woman before him but to the man still stumbling from his kick … the man behind him. As before when he had discovered the kaiten and the rokujuuyonshou Neji turned off his mind and turned control over to the blood flowing in his veins. His fists closed as in place of the usual two pointed fingers he began to perform the sixty four strikes on a target behind him with a single pointed knuckle.

"Hakke Ni shou!"

"Yon shou!"

"Hachi shou!"

"Juu Roku shou!"

"San Juu Ni shou!"

"Rouku Juu … Yon shou!"

Instead of flying backward and appearing as dead matter with no chakra however his enemy fell forward onto Neji's arms and collapsed into sticky mud. To his left the enemy he had thought he was fighting made a seal and more earth clones burst through the tent floor, surrounding Neji.

_Shit, shit, shit. Stall for time, stall for time, stall for time._ "What are you here for?" Neji silently cursed himself for asking a question that could obviously be only to stall them.

"A worthy attempt."

Then with a waving motion the clones exploded in a shower of mud, clinging to Neji's clothes and restricting his movement.

The other one, the one he had knocked down, had had time to regain her footing and was part way through some jutsu, damn how had his byakugan missed that activity. Then she finished on the seal of the snake.

"Dotton, Doro sentou no jutsu!"

Suddenly the mud clinging to Neji's body became like an inside out hedgehog's skin, piercing and rending his flesh. He began to lose consciousness. As the blackness began to close in on his vision he saw a figure in green enter the tent, shouting, then … nothing.

"Stop now!" Gai's voice rocked the tent, "your client is dead, your mission has failed. Any further violence against my student will be viewed as an act of war under Konoha's treaty with Ishi."

The two stone nin nodded curtly and disappeared, simply accepting that they could do no more.

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Shizune and Keito (the other Konoha medic) sat in conference with Gai, "I am sorry but with only the two of us, we cannot save him. We can attempt surgery to save him and since he will die if we do not we MUST perform this surgery, however there is still only a twelve percent chance he will survive. We have stabilised him enough that he can say his last goodbyes to his team mates and set right his last testament. That is all we could do in preparation for the operation, I'm so sorry." 

Gai looked on the verge of tears, Lee cried openly. Belgarion stood and walked quickly into Neji's room before anyone could react, "_Close!_" the canvas walls of Neji's room in the infirmary tent stiffened and closed concealing those inside from sight.

Shizune rushed to the opening flap and tried to follow only to find that she could not bent the cloth at all. Then Gai put a hand on her shoulder.

"In all of the history of Leaf only the first and the fourth stood a chance of opening that door, that one's arts are powerful indeed, whatever he orders when he comes out of there know that Neji has agreed to his plan and that by Hokage-sama's own order you must obey his commands." Gai's normal tone had still not returned since their return to camp.

Shizune nodded dumbly.

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Half an hour passed, Gai ordered Lee and the ANBU to get some sleep and be ready to move by mid morning. 

Another half hour and the stiff canvas walls began to ripple once more before Belgarion came out of Neji's 'room'. He walked over to the two medics and spoke sparingly.

"You are to begin surgery right away, even should he die mid operation you ill continue until his body is completely whole, should he die you will continue to repair his body until it is completely whole and then you will leave the tent and notify me, whether he lives or dies his body must be whole by midnight. Understood?"

Shizune began to protest but stopped as Gai touched her shoulder. "Understood."

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Chaptar endium

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Ooohhh evil cliffhanger! But then those who've read the Belgariad probably know what Belgarion has planned already don't you? Especially considering he wants Neji's body intact whether he lives or dies. I only got about 500 words done while I was drunk but then I went home and without Toast-nii and hungrybox distracting me I got around 2k3 words done today. I got about 80 gig of anime at that LAN and found out most of it is licensed in the us but since none is licensed here yet I think ill keep it and watch it, its not like I don't buy it when it comes out here anyway, im in Australia by the way, and if anyone knows when air master is likely to see an aust release let me know, also tell me where I can buy ranma ½ in aust cos I wants it.


	4. Sight and the learning curve

Warnings: Crossover, defnitly main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga. Also when I use Japanese words I wont stick on an 's' when it refers to a plural, Japanese has no indicator for plurals so the words are the same for one or many. (like fish, one fish, 13 billion fish. See? It was the same word just indicating more). Oh and Belgarion is getting kinda ooc but I suppose 2000 years will do that to you.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Chapter begin na no desu.

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Shizune stood opposite Keito, both said nothing as they furiously worked to close wounds and reshape bones, it wasn't going to be enough – the pain of regrowing muscles at this speed was breaking the bonds that held his mind to his body. It would be worse than becoming a vegetable, a vegetative mind was still present just inactive, Neji would be a living body with a completely separate mind, dead psychologically but living physically.

Then, at 23:04, Neji died.

All the machines beeped happily telling the world his body was fine and operating quite well, his heart beat rapidly normalising, his breathing calm, his nervous reaction above standard, his brain activity … absent.

The seal that marked him as a Hyuuga glowed brightly as his eyeballs seemed to fade out of existence before fading itself leaving behind a bare forehead where before there had always been a mark of his place in the branch family.

Keito fell to his knees and remained there in shock and exhaustion. Shizune however remembered her orders and began to heal the last of her patient's wounds, it took only around thirty seconds since she didn't have to worry about harming her patient's mind anymore. Then she lead Keito out into the waiting area by one hand.

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Once more the walls of Neji's 'room' in the infirmary tent stood stiff as steel baring entrance to those outside while they waited for whatever was happening to be completed. Then, with a loud grunt of exertion from inside, the canvas went slack and began to blow in the wind.

Gai and Lee crossed the distance to the flap in an instant with the Keito close behind, the ANBU team sat patiently waiting for the others to bring news.

Lee's head shook in confusion as he saw Neji sitting in bed staring at nothing with his empty eye sockets and playing with two small round stones on his right palm, Belgarion sat in a chair next to the bed, head tilted back and completely unmoving.

"Di … did he? … is he dead? He exchanged his life for yours?" by the sound of Lee's voice he truly believed that it was exactly what happened and exactly what anyone would have done if they had it within their power.

There was a gurgle from the chair, if something so close to a snort could possibly be gurgled. "Yeah right, I'm just tired ok? I should be ready to travel by noon if you let me sleep."

"No need, our client has got word of new earth nin's mobilising, we are likely to be here for at least three more weeks. At least you two are excused duty for a few days." Gai shook his head and left the tent, ushering the others along with him and ordering a sleeping mat brought over for Belgarion.

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Naruto sighed, he held no less than twelve Rasengan before him and just knew this was going to hurt. After two months he could form all six on each hand and even force the two larger out to the size of a kunai, but as soon as anything heavier than a blade of grass or a leaf touched one it would falter and he would lose control of all of them. Even worse was the fact that once created he could not safely dispose of them, at best he had dispelled one safely before the other eleven had 'gone off' and flayed his arms. Still all this practice had made his skill with using kyubi chakra to heal advance to even more amazing levels, he could even regenerate minor cuts with his own chakra. 

And that was something else that he had learned, the amount of Kyubi chakra he could use was directly proportional to his own chakra reserves and as he used more kyubi chakra the exercise in turn expanded hi own chakra reserves. Already he could summon Gamabunta on his own chakra reserve and his 'red' chakra usage was over half again as much as he had pulled out against Sasuke. Too bad his control didn't grow as easily.

He sighed once more, they were almost at the halfway point of their journey – a one week stop back in Konoha to reprovision – and suddenly Jiraiya had stopped teaching new things. Every day alternated between spending hours meditating while maintaining both hands full of Rasengan and cutting things with his distorted Rasengan. So far his record meditation was nearly an eighth of the target set for him and he still hadn't managed to cut anything tougher than grass and paper.

Naruto looked at the clock, nearly four minutes – a new record – and he wasn't even tired yet, maybe the secret was to think about other things and let the Rasengan maintain itself after all.

Tomorrow they would be back in leaf once more before heading out for a round trip to cloud and waterfall before (hopefully) arriving at the hidden mist in time for the exam.

On the way to the hidden sand they had met Gaara's team and spoken as they walked. Naruto was shocked to hear of Lee and Neji's growth but even more shocked to hear of Gaara being defeated by some gennin who either hadn't made it to the preliminary fights in the last chuunin exam or hadn't even participated. The academy had only one graduation a year and since this year's one was to mark the end of his week's stopover in Konoha the one who beat Gaara must have already been a gennin when the last one was running yet Naruto couldn't put a face or name to Gaara's description. A sandy blond, large sword, rusty brown cloak and of course a full head over all but the tallest people Gaara had ever seen, uses Mokuton, some sort of Katon or Doton and sealing jutsus. With features like those he would have been somewhat of a celebrity in Konoha yet Naruto had never even heard of someone like that, the only others in the entire village with blond hair were the Yamanakas, yet he had none of the other features characteristic of Ino's family, his height dwarfed even the Morino family, yet there was a Morino at the academy a year younger than Naruto and definitely brown of hair who was often gossiped about as the only Morino currently in training, all the rest were either Jounin, ANBU or pursuing careers not involved with the villages ninja activities in any way.

Then there was the description of his abilities, Mokuton marked him as being descended from the shodaime – a definite cause for fame if Konohamaru's relation to the Sandaime was anything to judge by – and of course it was judged about chuunin level skill to learn more than one element yet from the description he used three, to use multiple jutsu at once was counted a jounin level of skill and to combine two elements in one jutsu was quite a rare skill even among the most famously skilled nins in the village. Sealing jutsu were quite a specialist field of study and those that knew them usually knew only them and a few basics. But combining two elements in one jutsu, Naruto kept coming back to this one fact, he wanted to see this 'Explosion array' no jutsu for himself. Naruto sighed once more, he had to admit he really didn't care about this new gennin and he was only thinking about him to keep his mind occupied and the Rasengan spinning, it just helped to think about it as if he cared and wanted nothing more to beat this foe … like he wanted to beat Sasuke. But this forced interest waned quickly for Naruto and he thought about Ramen.

The clock struck one.

Naruto startled and lost three mini rasengan on his right hand, he flinched as the first blade of chakra cut his palm and soon all twelve blazed their last glory and exposed the bones all over his forearms, Naruto sighed and healed all the damage. Still ten minutes wasn't bad, over three times the old record and fully a quarter of his goal.

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Neij fell to the forest floor exhausted, he sat panting heavily and staring at Lee. Well staring at where he thought Lee was anyway, his lack of vision meant he was actually facing a spot twelve centimetres to the right of Lee's elbow. 

"Thirty two minutes, twenty six seconds. Well done Neji-nii-san." Hinata, despite an abiding almost fearful awe of Neji, had leapt at the chance to help create a Juuken style that didn't need any sort of dojutsu and since Neji needed some on who could tell if certain strikes were effective and Hinata was willing to lend her byakugan to the task she and her team had been training with Neji's team for the coming chuunin exams for over a month since they had returned. She had even begun to learn a little of this style herself, apparently only to spite her father over Neji's expulsion from the clan.

During the fight with Kidomaru Neji had discovered that he could 'see' with his chakra, now he worked day in day out the enhance his reserves to the point where he could once again function as a ninja. _Half an hour,_ Neji twitched, _not enough._ Neji's goal was to be able to leave a fifty metre chakra field active at all times, and to be able to regenerate his chakra out of battle without closing off his 'sight'. On Mondays and Wednesdays he simply walked around the village and practised daily life with this new vision, completing simple missions such as fetching groceries for his mother, on Fridays he meditated and poured as much chakra as he could into the surrounding environment until he fell unconscious for a while before waking up and beginning again, every Sunday so far he slept so soundly he missed the whole day, every other day was spent fighting Kiba and Lee using this new juuken consisting of memorising the locations learned in the Hyuuga ryu and finding them by chakra 'sight'.

Shino never fought on these days since they were already scheduled for other facets of his training, Hinata never fought Neji but would frequently face Kiba and sometimes even Lee using the new style mixed freely with her own, she even won on occasion. Neji refused to fight Belgarion until he was sure that he could win first time, a resounding victory to christen the completion of his new juuken.

Belgarion never fought on Neji's scheduled combat training days, instead he spent those days with Shino, competing in what he called 'the contest of wills' – a competition to make things happen by willpower alone, using chakra immediately disqualified and nothing but the eyes were to me moved for the duration of a duel. The actual activity varied day to day, some days they would pit their wills against each other directly – such as the time each had attempted to force a pendulum to point steadily at the other – other days they would compete to be the first to complete a task – such as making a bell chime.

On those days Neji spent doing other things Belgarion spared with everyone, and anyone in the village willing to challenge him in any variety of competition. He had already lost to Shikamaru at shougi three times this week, vowed never to take another eating challenge from Chouji and surprised the hell out of Ino with his self possession technique.

When not indulging his competitive streak he could be found teaching Lee new skills with his newly awakened external chakra and laughing behind one hand every time Lee fell from a tree or sank in the lake.

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"Tadaima." Neji stepped inside his home. 

There was no response, his mother was out on a mission this week. Even though the loss of his byakugan meant he was no longer counted as part of the Hyuuga clan he was allowed to stay in the same home since he was not yet of leaving age and his mother was still counted part of the clan.

Neji reheated some food and ate it.

Neji sat down in an armchair to rest a moment.

Neji slept soundly till six am the next day.

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Hinata sat quietly and suppressed a yawn, everyone was boring this morning, Neji sat alone against a tree with a cloud of chakra surrounding him so dense that Hinata almost believed that she would still see it if she deactivated her byakugan. She wasn't about to do that though, Lee and Kiba were moving so fast that it was near impossible to follow their sparing with normal sight, Kiba relying on his nose while Lee was guided by a bizarre mix of chakra sense and pouring all of the chakra coming from the open gate (the 'open gate' is the first gate btw … I think, if not correct me) into his eyes. Without the byakugan Hinata could only see the sudden flashes as Lee tried to connect with a puff of elementally charged chakra. The clouds were his own invention, he could mix in fire, ice, lightning and wind properties into the clouds of chakra that escaped his arms and legs when he concentrated too much there, but his continued failure to utilize any solid – elements such as water, wood, earth or metal – seemed to frustrate him. 

Lee stood over Kiba with a mass of glowing 'icy' chakra in one hand, it wasn't truly ice but merely the opposite of the hot chakra he called fire, waiting for the other to admit defeat. Akamaru stood silently with his legs stuck in hard baked mud, Kiba's weapon pouch with his soldier pills was on the ground with one strap cut and one of his shoes was in a tree, surely he would concede now. Lee blinked.

Kiba bit his lip, sucked blood onto his tongue and spat. Lee's eyes opened as sticky and corrosive liquid ate at the sensitive skin on his face. Kiba had grown in this time too, he had learned from some of his opponents, as well as Neji's report on Kidomaru, and found it was quite simple to adapt the training for Akamaru's dynamic marking to enhance the properties of his own blood, so far he had managed to make it sharp, sticky and corrosive but never all three at once.

Hinata sighed, Kiba had used the time to free Akamaru now the sparing match was once more up in the air and not looking like ending any time soon. She turned her head to the most boring pair of all, Belgarion and Shino stared at a running column of water where a stream flowed over a drop of about half a metre in dread concentration. They had sparred all morning without a drink and now competed to be the first to fill their cup by diverting the course of the trickle and thus be the one allowed to drink, so far Shino's cup stood twice as full as Belgarion's but both were under half full and the trickle once more tilted toward Belgarion's cup. The byakugan completely failed to perceive any of that duel, no chakra was used and even the greatest masters failed to see the mind.

Suddenly Belgarion sighed, "I'm sorry Shino, it would seem I have some business in the village I wasn't aware of today," Belgarion picked up his cup and held it under the trickle for a moment before drinking, "I must forfeit this match, my apologies."

Shino said nothing as Belgarion left the clearing, instead diverting the trickle's course and filling his cup, as if to legitimise his victory.

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Itachi sat opposite Kisame eating his takoyaki, today they wore the uniforms of two Konoha chuunin who had had the misfortune of being about the right size to fit them, and a little light genjutsu of course. Ever since Naruto's disappearance Itachi had taken a perverse pleasure in dining here with Kisame and watching as shinobi walked past at around one every five minutes and completely failed to notice their presence. This was a part of town where very few high ranked nin ever came, however chuunin who wanted assignments within the village were often given positions as bouncers at the more rowdy bars or some would be sent to make contact with the less law abiding clients occasionally necessary to a ninja village when the customers without any reason to hide become to few to support the economy, such people are not allowed to operate in the village of course but one must be able to meet with them in order to be hired by them. 

An gennin nearing adulthood wandered in and over to the counter, a few of those frequented the bar – past the age of leaving their parents home and without the higher income chuuninhood bought they were forced to shop where the meals were cheap and filling. This one ordered a single onigiri and wandered over to Itachi and Kisame's table and sat … he began to eat. _An interesting development, oh well Kisame will speak up soon, he always shows a little impatience in these matters. Looks like we wont get Naruto today though, pity since today he would be back in the village and without Jiraiya's protection, still there are six more days this week._

"Is there a reason you need to sit at our table right now kid?" Kisame's tone could have cut flesh.

"Hmm? Oh me? I was just wondering why you two need such high level illusions covering your forehead protectors." The young man's polite smile and happy blue eyes blended nicely with his interested tone to create a sudden confusion that silenced Kisame for nearly a full second.

"I think that perhaps we should move to a more private location so as not to involve innocent villagers in our … discussion of your observation. Wouldn't you agree?" Itachi's calm voice filled the void of Kisame's confusion.

"I am truly sorry that I must decline. Though it is rare I get to meet someone such as yourself, someone equal to or possibly above my own skill level, the very manner in which I sensed your entry into this village indicates that you serve one of the contesting forces, knowingly or not, and if it is the force opposed to the one I serve then the rules indicate that I can only fight you by training someone else with the power to do so or by waiting until you break the rules first. Still since unmaking the universe is the risk if one force ignores the rules I'd rather not do that. And of course it isn't a good idea for us to duel to the death if we both serve the same force." The boy smiled happily and gestured to Kisame, "I could probably get away with killing your … friend here though, if you would prefer."

"Well if you're anything like as good as you claim to be, I'll be happy to cross swor …"

"Kisame we're leaving." Itachi was already standing and on his way to the door.

"Wha? But Itachi…"

"This is a delaying tactic, there are three squads of ANBU level chakra sources headed in this direction."

Kisame's eyes widened for a second before both left the village with a Shunshin no jutsu.

Belgarion swallowed the last of his rice ball and wandered off to think about the presence of the light prophecy that had arisen in Neji since his resurrection and the reason for the same presence in an S-class missing nin. Then of course he had to wonder about Tsunade's orders concerning a demonic presence entering the village sometime today, although from the description it would be another one like Gaara, not actually a demon but a vessel preventing one's escape.

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Chapter end da pyon.

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yay for me. well actualy this chappie took a while for me to figure out where to end, it really could have gone on but then there wouldnt have been anywhere to end it until halfway through ch 5 and that would majorly slow the update so ... yeah i had to stop 600 words short of my goal. too bad eh?

oh well see you next chappie.


	5. Visitors and pointless competition

Warnings: Crossover, defnitly main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga. Also when I use Japanese words I wont stick on an 's' when it refers to a plural, Japanese has no indicator for plurals so the words are the same for one or many. (like fish, one fish, 13 billion fish. See? It was the same word just indicating more). Oh and Belgarion is getting kinda ooc but I suppose 2000 years will do that to you.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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The chapter doesnt start here this is a biscuit

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Neji sighed, in the month since their return from the mission in the Earth country Hinata's team had also completed enough missions to qualify for entrance to the chuunin exam in Kirigakure along with Yamanaka Ino and Tenten. The upshot of this was that Tsunade had ordered that those gennins with a strong probability of passing the exam be removed from duty and spend the remaining month and a half before they had to leave for the exam training everyday, Konoha needed its ranks swelled as much as possible. 

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Neji sat and tried to maintain a field dense enough to spot anyone else arriving for training, and was rather proud to spot Tenten about ten metres from the entrance to the training ground. He was less pleased to hear the cut off snort of laughter when she saw him. 

"Oh my god Neji what the - are you wearing?"

"Well excuse me for not possessing the same impeccable fashion sense that you do." Neji replied bitterly.

"Oh come on anyone with ey… oh …" Tenten's voice ran down as she realised that the reason Neji looked like he was dressed by a blind man was the he had in fact dressed himself this morning. "I'm so sorry Neji I just forgot …"

Neji snorted and turned his head to a direction that her voice indicated didn't include her and wondered just how bad he looked, it was quite a concern since he had learned the hard way during his first month as a gennin that few clients were willing to hire a ninja of any rank if he didn't meet with the appearance test, and that very few enemies were able to take you seriously if you dressed like … well Lee for example, he and Tenten had been involved in countless unnecessary battles because Lee or Gai were offended by their enemies underestimation.

Tenten looked at Neji and was forced to admit that while his normal, serious pants – the ones made of a sort of darkish, hard wearing canvas – _really_ didn't work with the almost fluorescent pink and green floral shirt that he had probably mistaken for one of his normal white cotton shirts. Still a client could take his face seriously, there was something about his expression, that and the fact that he allowed his forehead protector to cover his eyes, thus showing the shiny silver circle on his forehead, it crinkled slightly with the sneer he had developed in response to the change in those around him since his blinding.

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"Yo!" Naruto raised one hand as he entered the clearing. 

"Um … he-hello Naurto-kun." Hinata blushed slightly and quickly turned back to her training so he wouldn't see her burning cheeks.

"So what you got there?"

His hand landed on her shoulder and Hinata gasped and allowed the water to drop to the ground between her feet and desperately tried to make her voice sound normal and relaxed, "I-It's a, um, er, chakra control exercise, for um, er, well, it'sachakracontrolexcercisetohelpmelearnsomesuitonjutsu." With the sudden garble Hinata blushed even more and tried to hide her face.

"Really? That's great Hinata, keep at it ok." Naruto smiled and wandered off to see what the others were doing, completely oblivious to the small girl's near heart attack.

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Shino stared at Belgarion and tried to quell his growing nausea, today's test of wills was by far the most challenging Shino had faced. 

Once more the object of the challenge was a trickle of water falling to the ground between them, Shino was relieved at the moment since he had the upper hand, the streaming water fell into a funnel attached to a tube leading to Belgarion's mouth. Shino watched intently as his opponent tried to swallow the incoming water and force the stream away at the same time, so far over the course of the match Shino had taken in nearly seven litres of water while Belgarion had taken a massive eleven and was currently turning blue.

Suddenly Belgarion cringed and turned away, allowing water to drop to the ground from the end of his tube and granting Shino the win. He didn't seem to care though as his body rebelled and he spewed forth about half of the water he had consumed in one go. Shino stood and wandered off into the tree line to find somewhere quiet to do the same, after all with this much water in his system it would only take about another hour for osmotic pressure to explode most of his blood cells.

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Neji grinned slightly at the spectacle before turning his attention once more to his contemplations. With stern concentration Neji focussed his chakra at the tip of the first knuckle on his left forefinger, he sat perfectly still for a moment before suddenly jamming the knuckle into the top of his right bicep. 

_Hmm, chakra completely cut off in arm, that's a significant improvement on needing to hit six in this region for that effect, nervous damage, arm fingers still operative however use of the rest of the hand and lower arm is lost. At this rate I may even replace the Rokjuuyonshou with a skill I can actually use in combat in my current state. _

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Kiba looked down at Lee, "What's wrong with you today? You've started to make some basic mistakes."

Lee sighed heavily, "I'm sorry Kiba-san, it just that my continued failure to use earth and water elemental chakra is starting to get to me, like just then when you struck the winning blow – I was still trying to use a burst of earth chakra on you. It never works, I need some insight on how to use it."

Lee's head fell back to the ground as he went into deep thought.

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Naruto glanced at Tenten, Tenten's gaze slipped away toward Ino, Ino stared at the ground under her. Ino looked up at Naruto, Naruto turned to face her, Tenten shifted to face Naruto. 

Naruto coughed, "So, um, how did you guys wind up stuck with me? Is this just for the exam or are we an official team now?"

"I'm only with you for the exam," Ino didn't seem to mind one way or the other, as if she had developed an more pragmatic approach to life lately, "Shikamaru is already as chuunin and Chouji wont be ready to fight _anyone_ until halfway to the next chuunin exam. I'm filling in for Sakura since medics need to take another exam before they're able to enter the chuunin exam."

"Welcome aboard." Naruto extended one hand in a friendly manner, Ino stared at the offending article until Naruto withdrew it in embarrassment.

"I was transferred to your team permanently." The statement was flat and unhappy, not so much as if Tenten hated her new team, there were undertones that hinted she was missing something she had found on her old team. "I was only meant to be on this team until Neji and Lee were ready for active duty again, then the newest Konoha nin transferred in on us and got himself assigned to my old position so now I'm here permanently." This last was said with a _look_ in the direction where Belgarion was walking away from his impromptu puddle to join Neji meditating.

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"Still can manage all sixty four?" 

Neji sighed and shook his head, "In a combat situation I can strike one, if my target stands still I can strike seven before the force of my strikes pushes the target backward and I start to miss, even if the target is completely frozen in place I can only land thirty or so before having to attack from memory becomes too hard and I screw up."

"So then you are creating some new tenketsu attack?"

"Yes."

"And that is why your arm is hanging limp like that?"

"Yes."

Belgarion sighed a long suffering sigh, "care to let me in on the secret?"

"Oh, alright," Neji sounded confused as if the concept was strange to him "… since I can still strike one in combat I have been developing a way to cause as much damage to that one as I can, already I can shut off the chakra in an arm with onlyone strike as opposed to thesix required to match that feat by the normal tenketsu sealing method, with an added bonus that it does temporary nervous damage all the way up into the shoulder region."

Belgarion glanced at the limp arm, "And you're perfecting these moves on yourself?" 

"Who else? About the only person I could convince to be my dummy would be Lee, and even this level of tenketsu damage would not affect him so how would I know if it worked?"

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Hinata secretly wondered why she was still pretending to fail publicly in an exercise she had mastered privately weeks ago. She knew the answer of course, it made her look busy while using her byakugan to read Neji's lips when he spoke about his training. Right now he was talking about increasing tenketsu damage by creating a cone with a fine enough point to penetrate a tenketsu and a very wide base that would stretch the inner coils system temporarily. 

Hinata looked at the water floating between her hands and blushed as she realised that what had started as a sculpture of Akamaru had once again become Naruto's face crafted from floating water as soon as she turned her focus away for even the slightest of moments. She sighed and allowed the water to drop back into the bucket.

Staring at her extended first knuckle she formed the cone of chakra as Neji had described and looked at Kiba chatting happily with Shino. As a result of her … well she didn't like to call it spying or evesdropping but … anyway whatever the means she had even gleaned a tidbit of knowledge that allowed her to see someone's tenketsu, not very well and only if both she and her target were fairly still … but the Kiba was sitting quite still listening to whatever Shino was saying.

_Thump_.

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Lee lay perfectly still, the wounds gained from Kiba had been covered with scabbed flesh by a small puff of healing chakra and forgotten. Right now Lee wanted to understand his failure. He once again tried the method that had worked so well for fire and ice (… well cold at any rate) and even wind chakra. 

First he gathered his chakra to his palm, no impact was required anymore simply enough chakra in one place was enough to reopen the wounds and let his chakra flow outside.

Then he began to think of earthy things, _stone, soil, rock, minerals._

Finally with a burst of chakra to his brain he 'projected' the shape of those thoughts onto the gathered chakra like a mould.

It didn't work.

Lee was then distracted by Kiba yelling at someone, it sounded like he was mad at Hinata, which was odd – lately he seemed to become nervous and unable to express any feeling than a weak hello in her presence.

Lee sighed and opened his eyes, tilting his head in that direction he saw Kiba walking off in a huff, left arm hanging limp at his side, and Hinata reaching into her bucket for her ever present blob of water.

Hmmm, she doesn't create watery chakra effects, she manipulates the water.

Lee stared at his hand then at the ground, the he looked over to see Belgarion gesturing with one of his daggers in front of Tenten, as though teaching her some finer point of the longer hooked weapons use as compared to her normal kunai. Neji was walking off as though he did not want to sit around and observe the conversation.

Lee did something very un-Lee-like.

Lee grinned an evil grin.

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Belgarion sighed as he looked a the lump of stone encasing his right hand, he was guessing from the way its arrival had coincided with his dagger arriving on the ground next to Lee and Lee's own triumphant shouts that this meant the boy had finally managed to use an earth manipulation skill. 

Belgarion smiled despite himself.

"Alright Lee, well done. Now give me back the knife."

"Oh, sorry Belgarion-san." Lee shouted back before he bent down and flicked the dagger back the way it had come.

"Now," said Belgarion casualy as he stepped aside so that the dagger was headed for Tenten, "if you would care to catch that for me."

Tenten nearly laughed as she reached out and plucked the projectile from the air, that was simple, the knife obviously wasn't for throwing and as such it moved through the air more slowly than a kunai or shuriken and reached her at a speed an academy student could have caught.

"Well done, now do you understand the difference that extra four centimetres and the hooked end make?"

Tenten looked down and realised her hand was bleeding badly and the dagger seemed to have slipped her grasp and fallen to the grass at her feet.

Belgarion bent down and retrieved his dagger and wandered away from the girl standing in stunned silence staring at her fingers.

Tenten decided to have a chat with a weapon smith friend of hers that afternoon.

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Ino was bored, Tenten had wandered off 'to get some tips from someone else who preferred to use a blade'. Yeah right Ino spotted that as an excuse to go sit over near Neji a mile away, hell if Sasuke had been sitting over there next to Belgarion wouldn't she have tried the same excuse? … actually, she didn't think she would have, not anymore. Not after what had happened because of his betrayal. _Couji…_

Ino snapped herself out of that as quickly as possible, she had learned the hard way how hard it was to force her mind to operate again if she allowed it to wander down that path. As a distraction Ino decided to get some practice with her own shintenshin no jutsu, but who to pick on? Kiba was moaning in pain at the moment, not a body she wanted to be in right now, the same went for Tenten who sat bandaging her hands, Shino and Belgarion had actually used 'the shortest time to overpower her mind and release the jutsu' as the criteria for one of their little contests this week, not an experience she wanted to relive.

Then Ino met one of the cruellest ideas she had had in … ever. A grin split her face like an axe splitting a watermelon as she turned her gaze toward where Naruto sat focussed on some chakra exercise, six little spinning balls on each palm. Ino had begun to wonder what the look on Hinata's face would be like when Naruto came over to her and confessed his love in front of all three teams, hehehehehe, not to mention Kiba's. Ino formed the seals and pointed her joined hands at the back of Naruto's head.

It was all she could do not to cackle madly as she whispered "Shintenshin no jutsu."

Suddenly Naruto's concentration wavered, the six rasengan on his right hand bursting and slashing his arm to the shoulder, this of course lead to the six on his left duplicating the feat and Naruto rolling on the ground in agony as the puff of chakra containing Ino's mind floated overhead.

Ino mentally shuddered as she passed over the body she had almost put herself in and promised whatever gods were listening that she would work hard to be a better person.

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Shino shook his head sadly as he watched the occurrences around him. 

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Belgarion faced Naruto calmly. They had drawn lots to decide the matches this afternoon – Neji was already beginning to understand how hard it was to locate someone with his chakra sense when that someone was inhabited by a colony of bugs that ate said chakra, Gai's strict moral code was giving Lee some problems in the fighting Ino department and Tenten had already neutralised Akamaru using a hooked dagger borrowed from Belgarion, Hinata had chosent not to take part in the draw since there was a chance she would be matched against Neji before she felt herself ready so she sat on the sidelines and observed. 

Belgarion looked at Naruto and thought, he thought of the other gennin's descriptions of his improbable comebacks, he thought of the power he sensed in the boy, he thought of Tsunade's warning not to react too violently if he used demonic chakra but most of all he thought of how much Lee and Neji had grown since he met them and how much Naruto must surely have also grown. Belgarion decided that he would like to go fairly all out today so he drew his sword and placed it point down int the soil as he had so many times before when facing Neji. He focused on a point about three metres behind Naruto and gathered his will.

"I'm going to warn you, don't underesti...?" Naruto blinked in confusion at the disappearance of his opponent before even the normal pre-spar banter.

"-mate you?" Belgarion began with a taunt to excite the boy's emotionally activated potence.

Naruto growled and spun and moved to flick the three kunai in his holster at the opponent behind him, turning to charge after them for a violent assault.

To Belgarion the boy seemed to move at a snails pace as he cut the time around him into the smallest strips he could envision and charged past his turning adversary, whisking kunai from the holster in the time between Naruto undoing the cover and his fingers actually touching the hilts of the kunai.

Naruto looked in shock at the empty space before him and the immense lack of kinai flying from his outstretched hand, then he seethed to hear the chuckle from behind. Then he smiled happily as he realised his trap had paid off. It wasn't a trap he had designed for this specific opponent just a jutsu he kept active for any occasion where a foe held one of his weapons. His grin widened as he thought to himself that there couldn't be more than twenty people besides him in the entire world with the chakra reserves to maintain a jutsu like this. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week all of Naruto's arsenal of throwing weapons was made up of Kage bunshins using henge.

He was already smiling broadly as he turned to see Belgarion held in place by three clones, so he charged. A full sized rasengan flared in each hand as he covered the distance between himself and his target. His first clue something was up was that Belgarion didn't struggle but instead looked interestedly at his rasengan, his second was the way that when struck, rather than cry out in pain, the target faded like a shadow chased away by the light.

"An impressive skill indeed, it seems you know the root skill from which the variants are derived."

Naruto glanced around frantically as the voice continued, "You are fortunate – knowing this root skill allows you to alter the jutsu in any way you can think of, I on the other hand can only create one version of it, the version I was taught, since I lack the knowledge of this skill you possess."

Naruto flinched as Belgarion's voice rose in an invocation of some strange tongue not spoken in the fire country since before the founding of the hidden villages,_ "Come now bitter torrent and benign breeze, gather before me and transform into blades of air. Wind blade!"_

Naruto screamed in terror as he found himself engulfed by what he could only describe as a man sized rasengan, the three clones exploded into clouds of swirling smoke around him as his flesh was rent to the bone.

All the other combatants stopped what they were doing and stared in horror as Naruto's body fell to the grass amidst a pool of blood. Hinata screamed incoherently and charged three steps toward Naruto's body before Neji leapt forward and held her back, just out of range of the enormous burst of chakra that rent the landscape a second later. All watched in awe as Naruto's torn flesh healed and the minor lost body parts, three toes, one finger and his left ear, were regrown. Naruto fell to all fours as his face lengthened and his teeth grew pointed, his eyes fairly glowed red and the whiskers on his face turned a thick and dark black, his fingers lengthened ans his nails grew.

Kiba looked shocked and whispered to Akamaru, "Shikyaku no jutsu?"

Belgarion's voice rang out once more in the ancient language, _"I call on you now, from the land of the dead, to strike with the hammer of godly thunder."_ And the watchers got a definite sense that the invocation was incomplete.

He ran into the clearing and faced Naruto in the middle of a rapidly forming circle. Naruto howled a challenge and formed five mini-rasengan on each hand before creating larger ones and expanding them until the smaller were distorted badly, then he dispelled the larger ones and was left with two hands-full of claws six centimetres in length and made of swirling chakra. Then with impressive speed he leapt to the centre of the circle and lashed out at Belgarion.

The onlookers were surprised to see the two blur into a speed that rivalled even Lee and Kiba's most heated exchange, since they were all nearing that point in their training they each had a way to follow the fight. Shino was best able to observe the action – not even having to expend additional chakra since the myriad of bugs eyes he saw the world through allowed him quite a clear picture of the action – next came Kiba and Akamaru with their incredible sense of smell allowing them to track scents real time rather than following after the event, Hinata's Byakugan was completely confused and she saw only the odd glimpse of Belgarion behind some web of chakra held in place for an incredibly complicated jutsu, of Naruto she could see even less, there was a solid red block of chakra in the field clashing with Belgarion's web but that was all. Lee and Neji relied on their chakra sense but were confused by eddies and gaps in their chakra where the layer was unable to fall back in place quicly enough after being displaced by the duo's movement. Tenten was the only one able to follow Naruto clearly, she had found in herself an uncanny ability to read others instincts and the young blonde was relying on his instincts even more than Kiba normally did, Belgarion on the other hand was calm and nearly invisible to Tenten, but that made him very easy for Ino to follow since another facet of her mind manipulation was the ability to watch minds like Tenten watched instincts, by the same token Naruto's mindwas as invisible to her as Akamaru's, she even knew a jutsu that would allow herself and her new team mate to share these senses and gain a complete view of the competition, to bad she didn't think to use it, ne?

Belgarion found himself sorely pressured by Naruto's insane speed, so fast that even by cutting time as fine as he dared and moving with all the speed his body could muster he was only able to defend or evade, as Naruto threw vicious circular attacks and rent the air so hard in passing that his attacks seemed to gain another three centimetres past his claws in sheer shockwave.

Finally he felt the feeling that he had been waiting for, his invocation had finished its work, the hammer of godly thunder awaited only his word to strike. He pointed to a point outside the circle where Naruto would have to cross the whole area to chase him, gathered the will and spoke the word, "Be there."

Naruto froze as his prey disappeared before his eyes and then turned and launched himself as Belgarion spoke the final word of his spell.

"_INDIGNATION!"_

Naruto was in the middle of the circle when a bolt of lightning as thick as he was tall came rocketing out of the clouds toward him, he leapt sideways and barely evaded the bolt. He wasn't prepared for what came next, the bolt struck ground with such concussive force that Naruto was unable to jump and evade as the lightning spread over the ground to fill the circle and he was blown across the clearing when it reached him and flowed into his body.

Rather than subdue Naruto this assault seemed to enrage him and he leapt to his feet and called forth a huge flame before him and began to strike it with his clawed hands. With each swipe a band of flaming chakra sped across the clearing toward Belgarion and soon the will worker found himself badly cut and burned, his cloak falling to the ground in pieces around him and his leather pants and armour buckled and rent beyond usability, even his boots were being flayed. This was only a vague indication of the damage to his flesh, dozens of gashes ran over his chest yet refused to bleed as the fire was hot enough to seal the wounds as the bladed chakra opened them.

Eyes wide at the sudden danger of this sparing match Belgarion raised his voice to a near scream, "Dek Vaka!"

Suddenly it seemed the spirits of fire had fallen in love with him, rather than cut him further the burning chakra almost seemed to apologise as it passed through his body without doing any harm. Moments later where flame passed over his wounds they began to heal, as if the very spirit of fire was trying to undo the damage done by his servants.

Belgarion sighed as he allowed his wounds to heal a little more while he peeled of the tattered remains of his body armour, the trousers could wait until he had a replacement but the melting leather was beginning to hurt.

The task completed he raised one hand toward where Naruto still blindly hurled bolts of flaming chakra in his direction and began another chant, _"Soul of greatest ice, bringer of snow and the chilling wind, lady of the frozen plain, stand aside for I must call one beyond even your command. ABSOLUTE!"_

Suddenly Naruto's eyes reverted to their normal blue as his nine tails chakra was forced aside by a coming cold, he leapt and dodged as the ice began to close from all sides, vaulting upward and smashing ice as it sought to enclose his limbs. Almost detachedly he wondered if this is what Lee had felt when he had evaded Garra's sandy assault.

Then things went wahoonie shaped as Naruto found his foot caught in an advancing chunk of ice, he reached down to break it free as he had done several times in the last few seconds, but this time he found a problem – all the rising ice was beyond his reach, seeking to gain position above him without approaching directly. Suddenly with no solid surface to push against all of his upward momentum evaporated and he began to fall toward the bottom of a large hollow column of ice.

Belgarion squinted and dared to hope this would end the day's session but groaned as he saw a blurred image of Naruto squeezing blood from his soaked clothes onto his palm and starting a series of hand seals.

The approaching ice suddenly exploded and amidst a cloud of smoke stood Naruto upon the back of a frog easily half a metre taller than even Belgarion, the sorcerer suppressed another groan, _so he can summon as well, gods and monsters, this just draws on and on._

Belgarion pointed and shouted "Seal!"

Naruto looked down and saw the large sigil described by Gaara to him during their meeting in the wind country and leapt to his left, and he found himself alone as the summoned frog leapt to the right. Both watched as Belgarion walked calmly toward the large circle, the absolute best position for Naruto and his frog to flank him at.

As he walked past it Belgarion wiped a smear of his own blood onto the remaining chunk of ice and it shattered leaving behind a sculpture of a beautiful woman whose outstretched hand bore the stripe of blood Belgarion had placed on its surface, he continued to wander toward the circle.

When he reached the centre Belgarion stopped and began the first of the mental exercises required to summon a demon and bind it to the form of the statue. It would be easier to simply enforce an image upon the demons body once it was summoned than to use it to animate this statue, but something about his opponent caused him to overcomplicate things unnecessarily. From the point of the smear of blood colour began to flow into the perfectly clear ice maiden like smoke filling a glass tube.

Then she turned to face her opponent, her movements were graceful betokening a modicum of power in the demon summoned to control her and the mere act of glancing toward the frog caused a wave of icy chakra that froze its feet to the ground. So she turned to face Naruto.

She covered the distance between them with a short hop leading into a cruel scything kick at waist height. Naruto dodged with an acrobatic little twist that should have placed him in a good position to carry the momentum into a rolling backhand.

Needless to say he was shocked to find this was not the case, his opponent was quite inconveniently just out side the area he could strike at from his current position.

Watching this fight made an astounding comparison to the frenzied melee beforehand for those on the sidelines, there was still intense speed and movement but it all seemed to be on the part of Naruto. The woman-figure seemed to draw from some experience beyond the imaginings of those gennin present so that without ever seeming to rush or strain itself it was simply never in a position to be struck at.

Then as if it knew this was coming it vaulted just at the right time to evade the outstretched tongue of the frog and have it hurtling toward Naruto. The blue eyed boy smiled, too many times had he fallen for that, too many kage bunshins lost to friendly fire, he had practiced for this circumstance and instead of pounding him the tongue stopped at a convenient distance for him to jump from it after his foe.

The woman shape however seemed unbothered as she spun on her axis and a wave of cold came forth and chilled Naruto too badly for him to attack her or even land properly. At the other side of her spin she gestured and large chunks of ice crystallised and flew forth to strike heavily into the frog's body.

With a sudden burst of noise that could only be the frog equivalent of a howl of rage, the larger summoned beast leapt the clearing to where the ice maiden stood over its stiff and near frozen summoner. There was the smallest of smiles upon the demon avatar's face as it stepped aside and allowed the frog to land.

Surprise crossed the large amphibian's face as it was engulfed in blue flames and disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing where it had landed the sword Belgarion had left in the ground at the start of the battle.

Belgarion slumped over in his protective circle, breathing heavily and drenched with sweat, as the colour retreated from the woman figure's form. Belgarion blacked out from the strain watching Naruto still struggling to stand.

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Mmm, that was a good biscuit

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well there we have it, a bit late but what can I say? 

Actually my pc needed a format and I couldn't find my office cd and everything after the scene with Neji practicing on himself was written much later after I managed to locate it.

Well my holidays are over and im back in the lab now, and really I should have been typing up the reports on my AAS work for David rather than writing fan fiction since theyre already about three days later than my normal time, mind you theyre not due for another week but by not having them in at my normal time frame I kinda feel like im letting the side down.

BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!

Im enjoying this, quite a bit.


	6. A series of odd events

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga. Also when I use Japanese words I wont stick on an 's' when it refers to a plural, Japanese has no indicator for plurals so the words are the same for one or many. (like fish, one fish, 13 billion fish. See? It was the same word just indicating more). Oh and Belgarion is getting kinda ooc but I suppose 2000 years will do that to you.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Actually, speaking of biscuits ...

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Naruto stired, he was very tired but he wanted to wake up. Somewhere nearby he could hear singing. 

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Sakura felt much better now than she had while sitting previous vigils for a wounded comrade, while in the past she would be fretting and staring at Naruto's face as he lay there, now her medic training gave her an understanding of his situation. Naruto would be awake within the day, so instead of staring nervously at his still form like she would have in the past Sakura had gone out and smuggled in some instant raemen for him. 

Now she sat patiently on a chair by his bed wearing one of the communications units issued for recon missions adjusted to pick up local radio. As she sat there she began to forget about her surroundings. And then, halfway through her favourite song, Sakura began to sing quietly to herself.

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… _however justified,_

_I just cannot be your guide._

_But stay with me and be for a while._

_The secret belongs to a part of me,_

_enclosed by my anger and my pain._

_Just close my eyes and live your lie,_

_your tears are sweet for me._

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Naruto tried to hold back a laugh, but still a quiet snort slipped past his guard. 

Sakura's head snapped up and she glanced around the ward and saw Tenten hiding a giggle behind her hand right next to a certain Hyuuga (… well ex-Hyuuga if you wanna be picky.) who looked like he didn't want to be here. They were obviously visiting Lee, oh yes Lee … Lee sat up in bed and Sakura could just see a speech about her beautiful display of youth assembling itself in his mind for the next time they found themselves in closer contact. Further inspection of the room revealed a silent Aburame, a blushing Hyuuga heiress, an Inuzaka and his dog howling with mirth despite the fact that he was quite obviously in the hospital for a reason and possibly worst of all – an openly amused Yamanaka Ino sitting opposite her across Naruto's bed.

Sakura cursed inwardly, she was in the habit of closing her eyes while listening to music, she cursed once again the fate that had caused her to do so just in time to miss the start of visiting hours. She blushed furiously and glanced around the room once more.

Across from Naruto's bed was Lee, Neji sat next to him looking disinterested and preoccupied, next to him sat Tenten, forgoing her seat at her team mate's side to sit with her old team who she obviously felt closer to than Naruto. Sakura sighed and pitied Naruto for their Team mate's lack of care, at least Ino had the decency to sit by his bed even if she was really only filling Sakura's place for the exam. In the third corner of the room was Kiba's bed, and around him stood his team, looking like a team should. Sakura sighed at Tenten's actions but when she thought that even Sasuke wouldn't have done that to Naruto, she felt a return of the sadness that had been shrinking in her heart since he had left, but even lessened as it was it hurt her enough that she had to look away from the only team in the room that could really match her idea of a team.

So she turned to inspect the room's last occupant. Her sorrow redoubled as she saw Belgarion, alone, in the last corner of the room, with no team mates at all to be there for him. The only one who could be said to be sitting next to his bed was Sakura, simply because her chair was between his bed and Naruto's. Her heart cringed as he finished his boring meal of hospital food and neatly put down his chopsticks without changing his carefully neutral expression, set aside his tray and leaned back on his pillow. Even the hospital staff seemed to care for him less than the others, giving him only one pillow instead of the two that everyone else in the room had been assigned.

Then Sakura was taken aback, a look of utterly pleasant surprise crossed the older boy's face and he began to talk to himself, silently mouthing words and tilting his head to catch the reply.

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Belgarion wasn't surprised to find no one watching over him, he never became truly close to the inhabitants of the worlds he visited, but still he felt a pang of disappointment. He was closer to his team mates in this village than he had been to anyone save the man called Oni Me No Kyo, the only one to best him outright with a sword in nearly a millennium and a half. He chided himself as he ate, even Kyo wouldn't have been waiting for him in a hospital, and that was the closest he had been to another since leaving his own world. 

Then something changed, it was like a shift in some background noise that you never notice, the chakra that composed Neji's sight had flickered for a moment. Belgarion smiled, to have not noticed the chakra in the first place it must have been surrounding him to begin with, that meant that despite his geographical position Neji was watching over Belgarion just as much as he was watching over Lee, Belgarion mouthed 'thankyou' as he wondered if Neji could lip read with his new sight yet. He received his answer when confusion shot through the cloud of sensory chakra and a small portion, condensed enough to exert pressure, wrote on the back of his hand, 'what for?'

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Naruto blinked and leaned toward Sakura, "Why are Lee and Kiba here? In beds that is." 

Sakura shook her head and muttered something about idiots before answering, "I was told that after your little display and their own defeats at the hands of some poor defenceless girls, although I wouldn't describe Ino and Tenten as defenceless, they got a little carried away during their following match up." She nearly growled as she gestured toward Lee, "Thickbrows has nearly two hundred minor cuts and bite wounds," turning to face Kiba she continued, "Konoha's resident canine has a fractured forearm, burn wounds, frost bite and a dislocated thumb, even Akamaru has some scars where we had to remove lumps of stone."

Here Sakura paused, she thought for a moment and then glanced at the clock. "Ok then I s'pose its time for me to check your dressings, shirt off." Her manner was calm and she waited expectantly, looking at Naruto.

"whuh? Bu.. er…"

"Oh hurry up! I've got to check on Lee, Kiba and Belgarion after I'm done here. Its not like I haven't seen it before you know, it was me and two other trainees that performed the surgery on you four you know, I had to put nearly four hundred stitches into the four of you by hand after I started running out of chakra." Sakura was beginning to look peeved.

Then part of Naruto's normal bold nature took hold, _hehe Sakura-chan just told me to undress._

With his shirt off Naruto looked down and noticed for the first time that some of those four hundred stitches were in him, "Huh?" he fingered one particular wound on his chest, "I know I healed this wound … why is it …"

It was Belgarion who answered, "That is one of the reasons I oppose jutsu healing no matter how much the old woman tries to convert me to her beliefs, a bit of a defect that can cause the wound to swell and need to be reopened and closed by mundane methods, the jutsu can even reverse itself at an inopportune moment sometimes, right Neji?"

Neji didn't respond, merely raising his hand to where the wound from his battle against Kidomaru had reopened the first day Belgarion had trained with his team.

Sakura coughed to get Naruto's attention, "when you healed your wounds during the … match with Belgarion-san, you didn't clean them you just closed the skin up and leapt back into battle. We had to reopen all you wounds and remove everything from rocks and dirt to Hair and rust from the hob nails in Belgarion-san's boots. As I said we closed as many as we could normaly but when we began to run out of chakra we had to resort to the needle and thread. We're going to keep you here a few more days to watch for infection in case we missed some, but you'll be cleared to go by the time Jiraiya is ready to leave for the hidden mist, Belgarion-san will also be kept here until his chakra patterns stabilise. Isn't it odd that Kiba and Lee – who suffered numerous dislocations, burns and even frost bite – will be released this afternoon, while you two – admitted only for exhaustion – will be here at least another day? I guess it's god punishing your stupidity."

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"Hey Belgarion-san, why did you fight so hard?" 

"I've heard stories of your performance against Kiba, Neji and Gaara, and Lee speaks of your battle with Sasuke as though you were a god or something, odd since by all accounts – even his own – all he had to go by was the shockwaves you two let off as you clashed. I must say that you truly live up to Neji's assertions of some hidden power," here he paused slightly, "I've also heard Jiraiya say that you still couldn't hope to face Uchiha Itachi and live, and the fact that you were so much my match tells me that I did a very stupid thing the other day."

Belgarion mentally cursed his big mouth as he recalled his encounter with the S-class missing nin.

"_I am truly sorry that I must decline. Though it is rare I get to meet someone such as yourself, someone equal to or possibly above my own skill level"_

"So then you really think I was worth going all out on?"

"Oh yes, you are a fine warrior, you need only understand that that is not all a ninja needs to be."

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Naruto sat up in bed and locked gazes with the woman who had entered his room a bare five minutes after Belgarion had been allowed to leave the hospital. From her facial features and markings he guessed she was Kiba's mother or older sister. The huge dog at her side was a bit of a clue as well. 

She gestured and the doctor who had guided her here left, closing the door behind him. "In accordance with the law set down by the fourth Hokage concerning the keeping of your demonic secret from the younger generation of the village we, the Inuzaka clan, have been asked by the fifth to teach you the basic theory of the Shikyaku no jutsu, so that you might successfully pass off your transformation two days ago as the use of a variant of this jutsu. While unique to the Inuzaka clan in Konoha the jutsu is common to many other beast master clans scattered through the hidden villages, Kiba has already questioned how you could know a Gijuu jutsu and your master Jiraiya responded that you learned it from the Nekoutoshi of the hidden stone. This will be your story form now onward when questioned regarding this matter."

As she paused to draw breath Naruto began to open his mouth, only to have her speak right over the top of him without listening, "now the initial principal of Shikyaku no jutsu, the four legs technique, is…"

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Belgarion watched as Kiba continued his colourful monologue of thinly veiled rage at "Uchiha wanna be's and other technique thieves" and everyone present could tell he truly believed Naruto had 'stolen' the fourlegs technique from some relative of his clan in the sand village. Belgarion could tell, just as clearly, that Neji didn't believe the story, but Hinata seemed to buy into it so he thought that perhaps if the story was good enough to fool even one of the two Byakugan users then it might fool the rest of those who witnessed the transformation. 

Neji looked up at Belgarion, the older boy began to shift as the metal plate covering his eye sockets simply faced him silently.

Then he coughed, "Yes Neji?"

Neji seemed to struggle for a moment, as though to speak his mind would lower his standing as a person, then he finaly gave voice to a question so quiet that Belgarion had to strain to hear, "If I were to face you seriously right now, if I were not someone you had spent months training along side, if I were opposed to your goals, if I served to prophecy opposite the one you serve, if those 'rules' you always refer to did not stop us from fighting to the death … I wouldn't even make you raise a sweat would I?"

Belgarion's stunned silence betrayed him and Neji nodded before continuing "when I … died, you told me that since I have been there and back," Belgarion suppressed a shudder thinking of where 'there' had been, "the very action of returning has given me a potential beyond that I was born with, beyond even the heights I would reach should I become one of the few in this world to surpass the potential given to me by the life I lead." Once more Belgarion nodded, then Neji looked at him with hope written on his face (in thick black texta :P) and spoke with a pleading note in his voice, "Teach me."

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"Welcome to my home." Belgarion gestured to a small stone building in the middle of the forrest, as much like a tower as it could be without being obviously above the treetops. 

"Wha..? but Gai said you rent a place in Konoha village."

"I do, I go to great pains to make it look lived in too, anyway Neji open the door."

"What? But how?" chakra run over the ground as the Hyuuga 'glanced' about in confusion.

"Simply tell it to open."

"Err… open?" Neji gestured vaguely.

"You are a human aren't you?"

"Well yeah, baring any other side effects of your little resurrection trick."

"And the door is only a door is it not?"

Neji glared at the door, suspecting some sort of trick question, "… it does appear to be yes."

"Then why do you hesitate? It is but a door, you are a human being. Don't suggest that you might like it to open, COMMAND it to open."

Facing the door and summoning all the force he could muster and employing every nuance of the manner his uncle used when speaking to a branch house member, Neji fairly roared, _"Open!"_

Neji flinched as he felt the door swing open and his chakra pour past it, giving his the feel of a large single room, toilet and laundry in one tiled corner, pantry and kitchen in the one opposite, sleeping mat in the centre of the room. Neji had to wonder if Belgarion realy lived here, anyone living in any room for more than a week was almost definite to leave a mark on their place, something about them, a mark where they had tripped on a step, a poster on the wall, a callender, a pile of papers, _something_. Not nothing. Neji shuddered as the room suddenly felt cold in the wake of that observation.

With a gentle shove from Belgarion he stepped inside and turned suddely as he felt the door swing closed behind him.

Belgarion's voice called from outside, "I've removed the enchantment on the door, if you wish to exit you must reopen the door by your own power, you cannot force the door open by main force, nor will your chakra effect it, the only way out is the same way you got in. I don't expect to see you for a few days, I doubt you will be desperate enough to grasp the secret until you begin to starve, the pantry is empty so it wont be _too_ long, but the water still runs so you can last a while. I wouldn't tarry if I were you however, if you don't get it in time I will have no choice but to allow you to die in there."

Once out of earshot of the 'tower' the third presence, who had said nothing so far, spoke up, "There was no enchantment on the door, he opened it on his own power the first time."

Belgarion smiled at Shino, "yes, but the first test is whether or not he can realise that."

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"I'm sorry Naruto but I can not." 

"What why?"

Your will is incredibly strong, but …"

"That's why I would be great at you contest of wills!"

"… but will power and the ability to exert it on the world are two very different things."

"Huh..?" the energetic blonde stopped dead in pure confusion.

"Your will power is a reflection of the amount of chakra you can expend at once, so a weak willed person, even one with a huge chakra reserve, couldn't pull out enough chakra at once to perform even the simplest jutsu. Likewise a person with strong will and only a small reserve could conceivably use _all_ their chakra in one go. Can you not be satisfied knowing you can output more chakra at once than almost any other person in Konoha? Do you realy _need_ to add to my already too large roster of unsolicited students?"

Naruto ignored the protest and changed tack, "You sensed that demon in Gaara right? Does that mean you've noticed the demon in m…," cough, "err.. Konoha?"

Belgarion grinned and said, "Yeah, I've even figured out who his vessel is too."

Naruto didn't seem to be worried about what the older boy knew, "ok then you seem to know a lot about binding demons too, teach me some of that."

"No! I-don't-want-another-student!"

"But Belgarion-san …"

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"Alright, you've created the image?" 

"Ye-es …"

Belgarion's mind lashed out and clutched a harmless wood spirit, before subduing it and thrusting it toward his newest student's waiting mind. "Here, just force it to abide by the illusion you've created, as long as you hold the image it will be bound to your will. Try and keep it simple. If it gets too complex it will be harder to maintain and if you let go of the form you have forced it into, it will be roaming in the physical world uncontrolled and free to wander over there," he gestured toward where the others were engaging in their own practice, "and attack your beautiful lady."

Naruto blushed and stuttered "B-b-but Sa-Sakura-san …" the poor flustered blonde trailed off, and with a start Belgarion realised Naruto had no idea at all regarding Hinata's infatuation. He felt slightly sorry for the girl and decided to make the next section of training harder as punishment for Naruto's ignorance.

"Hurry up, if you wait too long your 'demon' will get away."

With a start remembered the struggling spirit form locked in the grip of his mind and began to force the struggling thing together with the illusion that was already beginning to lose its shape.

Belgarion looked at the creature summoned and nodded approval as Naruto had chosen a simple winged fairy form, covered with a plain robe that made the illusion even easier to hold up. Drawing his dagger in one smooth motion he cut deep into the creature's leg.

Naruto paled and buckled to his knees as the knife pierced the illusion but he held its shape, groaning as the falling cloth and exposed leg made his image twice as complex and thus twice as hard to maintain.

Belgarion tsk-ed, "Weakening already? Look! Your illusion already shows sign of your weakness, you are forgetting major details." When Naruto gave a questioning look he continued, "I just cut deep into it's leg, why doesn't it bleed?"

Naruto's eyes widened and Belgarion snorted as blood began to pour from the summon's wound, "Better late than never I suppose." Before he slashed a hole in one wing.

Blood poured from the wing and faded as it hit the ground, Naruto groaned as Belgarion shook his head once more.

"Look where I cut! You gave the demon insect-like wings, therefore blood should not be spilled if I don't hit one of the veins running along the wings, do they appear to be cut to you?"

Naruto leant forward to inspect the wound, as soon as he noticed none of the veins were cut the bleeding 'miraculously' stopped and he slouched, breathing heavily, as the illusion became harder to maintain.

Belgarion pulled one fist back and punched the creature in the face. Nruto cried out as his image shattered and the spirit began to flee. Belgarion however knew it would try to run since rather than an actual demon he had made Naruto practice on a simple spirit. Belgarion's mind lashed out and caught it once more this time forcing it into the form of an imp, complete with pitchfork, coincidentaly this was just about as far from the true form of a demon as possible but it had the desired effect.

Naruto leapt to his feet and into a combat ready stance. Belgarion spoke quietly, "One this weak will not attack you directly, but they can read human emotion and it will attempt to harm anyone close by who is emotionally attached to you." So saying he commanded the captive spirit to attack Hinata. _Lets see what the brat does when he thinks a demon has just told him Hinata is emotionally attached to his sorry arse._

Much to Belgarion's irritation long before the 'imp' reached the spot where one could tell if it was headed for where Hinata sat, playing with her water, or where Sakura sat enjoying her day off and chatting at Ino, Lee and Kiba released twin shouts of challenge and mauled the illusion beyond usability so badly that Belgarion was forced to banish the spirit back to the local subspace. He groaned as Lee and Kiba turned around and pointed out how bravely they had defended their beloved Sakura-san and Hinata-chan respectively.

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Shine bright morning light,

_Now in the air the spring is coming._

_Sweet blowing wind,_

_Singing down the hills and valleys,_

_Keep your eyes on me,_

_Now we're on the edge of hell._

_Dear my love sweet morning light,_

_Wait for me you've got much farther to fall._

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Sakura leant back with her eyes closed and sung almost silently to herself, when she felt a presence above her, she was startled to find Shino standing over her looking up to a point on the tree a few feet above her head. Her eyes widened as he spared her a glance and gestured that she should continue, so as not to startle his prey. She continued as requested and he stood stock still, one arm outstretched for nearly a full verse of the song before giving a satisfied sigh and sitting in front of her with the single most beautiful butterfly she had ever seen on his extended finger. Her singing faltered as her breath caught in her throat. 

"This is a truly rare find, quite possibly the only migratory butterfly on our continent. They are attracted to smooth waveform, mid-to-high pitched modulated sound waves."

Sakura blinked as she realised Shino had just said more words to her in one sentence than she had ever heard him say to anyone over any period of time.

Mistaking her amazement for confusion Shino whispered, "I am saying that this creature was attracted to this forest by your singing." There was a slight hitch in his voice just between his last two words as he almost added a descriptive to the sentence, the shape of the muscles sliding along his cheek bones above his collar told Sakura he had cut short something before it was said right in the middle of the sentence.

Shino seemed to shake slightly before he straightened and continued, "This one came all the way from his birthplace in the water country to the birthplace of his mother here in Konoha to find a mate whose mother was also born here, in exchange for a little advice on the better nesting sites in the forest he shared his memories of an area just at the outskirts of Kirigakure."

Once more Shino shuddered uncomfortably and seemed to argue with himself for a moment, or perhaps chastise himself for talking so much when to his team mates he would have simply said he had gained information and left them to guess at the source. But still he continued, "The information is mostly images and a patterned homing instinct, but if you wish as thanks for drawing him here with your song, I will offer to share the information with you."

Once more there was the odd hitch of a descriptor cut short right before mention of her singing. Then Sakura jerked around slightly as she reaised Shino sat before her patiently with both hands held up, his right still supporting the butterfly, his left poffering one of his Kikaichuu to her.

"Er.. how?"

"Simply lean forward."

Sakura did as she was told and tilted her head toward the young Aburame, her eyes widening as he reached forward and touched her forehead and the bug crawled from his finger to the centre of the open space between her hair and her eyebrows. The chakra in the bug's body emptied into her and with it came knowledge, strange bug's eye view memories of the area around the village of hidden mist, with all this she almost didn't notice how oddly normal Shino's finger felt for someone whose body was filled with bugs.

She was almost disappointed when the bug's chakra was depleted and Shino removed his touch from her head to catch the falling bug and resuscitate it with a puff of his own chakra. The movement startled the butterfly and as it flew off into the distance Shino turned his head to watch, the small amount of exposed face hinting at a soft smile.

The bug master stood and began to leave, but as he reached the edge of her hearing range he said quietly, so that she had to strain to hear, "I was also attracted to this place by your smooth waveform, mid-to-high pitched modulated sound waves. It is a nice song." Then he was gone.

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... I had a manius exocians priest named Total biscuit

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I couldn't help it, I had to make sakura a coil fan (that's lacuna coil for those not in the know) since I think Christina scabia has such a fantastic voice, even if her surname IS rather unfortunate. (like mine – one hint it starts with s and is commonly thought to be the most common name in the western world) 

wah sorry im late, but im getting stressed, toast-nii has found himself a girlfriend and just like everytime he does im being ignored and that makes me depressed. I even invited him on holidays with me and the first thing he said was ok if he could bring b-chan, so of course I had to say yes and now hes bringing her and im going to be stuck spending time with my cousin and her bf while b-chan gets toast-nii all to herself(actually that could account for the angsty-ness of Belgarion's scene in the hospital, yeah I know that's not angsty compared to … just about any naruto fic these days but I don't like angsty and for me that was angsty)

That and Dave (yay for slave driving lab managers everywhere! NOT) wants me to research a method for the analysis of Lithium in Human serum by electrothermal Atomic absorbance, and Im not even sure what human serum IS apart from it most likely being extracted from humans.

I also rather like the idea of naruto learning the shikyaku no jutsu and I have since I first saw kiba use it on him and thought of naruto going nuts on haku and noted a certain compatibility between the two.

Speaking of compatibility I don't actually know where that last section came from since I actually planed to have a strictly non pairing fic but now theres hintings of ShinoSaku which is realy odd because I don't think ive ever seen a fic with that pairing … so where did it come from?


	7. Training and departing

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga. Also when I use Japanese words I wont stick on an 's' when it refers to a plural, Japanese has no indicator for plurals so the words are the same for one or many. (like fish, one fish, 13 billion fish. See? It was the same word just indicating more). Oh and Belgarion is getting kinda ooc but I suppose 2000 years will do that to you.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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I've run out of biscuit comments

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Neji sat silently, in a placid, drowsy happiness. After escaping from that damn stone cell he had eaten his fill by grabbing everything from his pantry and stuffing it in his mouth. Being so full Neji was now falling asleep waiting for the others to arrive at training.

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Lee smiled at Neji's sleeping form and decided a quick test of Neji's alertness was in order. Lee cocked his leg back and swung.

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Neji recognised the form looming over him, he recognised Lee's intention as well. So at the last moment, instead of dodging as expected, Neji decided to test Lee's skill. 

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Lee nearly cursed aloud when Neji failed to move, _poor Neji, he must be so tired,_ so Lee stopped his kick scant millimetres from Neji's nose. 

Then Lee realised his mistake, Neji was smiling.

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Neji lifted one hand and interposed it between the stationary leg and his face, griping the ankle tightly, then raised his other hand to touch a spot just on Lee's exposed inner thigh. 

While Lee was stunned momentarily Neji chose to keep up the attack by rising and passing under the captured Leg to stand behind Lee. His fingers danced across Lee's unprotected back lightly pressing sensitive spots and nerve bundles.

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Finally Lee regained his wits and began to retaliate, throwing an elbow over one shoulder to force Neji back and create distance, Neji simply smiled and released the captured leg. 

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As Lee stumbled from the new freedom of movement Neji raised the now free hand and caught Lee's incoming elbow with a little puff of chakra for added effect. Lee gasped and flinched slightly, allowing Neji just the opening to drop to one knee and raise his hand to Lee's inner thigh once more, this time to the leg supporting Lee's weight. 

With first one and now both legs disabled by the juken Lee fell to the forest floor and held up his remaining arm in defeat.

Neji left the bushy area that now contained Konoha's green beast in favour of a nice spot on a branch overlooking the clearing.

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Kiba gaped, "You're saying you seriously expect to beat me? Guaranteed? First go?" 

"We-well umm … yes. I must defeat you and at least face Neji before Naruto-kun leaves tomorrow." Hinata blushed and looked away.

"You do realise that you're the only one in our group that hasn't been training for the past week. All you've done is that chakra control exercise constantly."

"Y-yes."

"And if I do agree to this, me an' Akamaru are going all out, no holds bared."

Hinata's head snapped up as if insulted, "Of course! You think I could go on to face Neji in front of HIM if you went easy on me?" then the heiress blushed and looked down again.

"Alright! Go Hina-chan!"

Hearing Naruto call out to her so familiarly Hinata almost died then and there, _H-Hina-chan?_ Then she composed herself and faced her team mate. Little could she afford to lose this match with the one she admired right there cheering for her.

Without a word the Byakugan embossed itself upon her features, she watched as Kiba gestured with his chin toward a falling leaf and she nodded her agreement. The leaf wafted through the air, they both followed its progress, the leaf touched ground.

With none of the grand posturing common to gennin level fights Kiba simply charged, activating both the juujin bunshin and shikyaku in the time it took Akamaru and himself to cover the distance to Hinata.

Hinata watched as a pair of claws swept in from each side at a speed far too great for her to match, her only salvation was the distance Kiba needed to cover before striking.

It had rained last night. The ground was soaked. It would be the perfect time to try out her new suiton jutsu.

Kiba's eyes widened as the supposedly out of shape Hinata managed to dodge his attack, but he grinned as Akamaru swung in for the other half of the pincer formation and landed a strike.

Kiba's grin turned to shock as he realised that Akamaru was going to hard on her and one of her arms was badly wounded, blood spraying the air. Kiba rushed forward to catch her, only to find himselft arriving just in time to be drenched along with Akamaru when the 'wounded' Hinata turned out to be a mizu bunshin.

From the other end of the clearing a quiet voice announced, "Kirigakure no jutsu."

Kiba nearly laughed as he found mist rising, this might help her with someone who relied on sight, but with Kiba it was all about smell, mist posed no problem at all.

Kiba and Akamaru lined up their Gatsuga and leapt, charging toward the unsuspecting Hinata.

Kiba and Akamaru made a mistake.

Kiba and Akamaru forgot that the mist would not hinder Hinata either.

A quiet, almost hesitant cry filled the clearing, "Kaiten."

The mist concealment technique was dropped and bystanders saw the suspended water condense and fall to the ground, drenching the prone Kiba and Akamaru who lay there, transformation dispelled, twitching. The release of the jutsu also revealed Hinata, spun dry by her kaiten and furiously forming hand seals.

Kiba groaned and looked blearily toward where Hinata stood, hands forming the snake seal. He blinked as she spoke, "Hyouton, Daiyomonda hokori!"

The beast master shook his head, Hyouton? Ice techniques? Wasn't she practicing water skills?

A wave of icy chakra flooded the area and Kiba was soonsurprised to find himself encased in ice up to his neck. But not assurpirsed as he was when he found himself where Hinata put him next.

Kiba suffered the rather unique embarrassment of being on the receiving end of quite possibly the _slowest_ divination sixty four strikes in the history of the Hyuuga family.

The other gennin watched in silence as Hinata painstakingly tracked down each of the tenketsu targeted by the technique and broke through just enough ice to hit them until finally, after nearly five whole minutes, Hinata whispered "Rokujuyonshou."

"YEAH! That was awesome Hina-chan!"

Hinata nearly fainted from joy and exhaustion when Naruto started cheering and jumping around, shouting her name.

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In the end Hinata was too spent from her match with Kiba to live up to her challenge to Neji (which was just as well for him since exiting the 'tower' only yesterday had left him with barely enough energy to stand after his little performance with Lee) but she was none the less ecstatic when Neji had admitted that she was indeed able to change. With all her excitement she had even leapt up and hugged Naruto and now she was having a little lie down. 

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I cannot fight against myself no more,

_Self destruction that I predicted not a long time ago._

_Sends your fine, thoughts so far from me._

_The power of my justice blows me away,_

_Just a kiss to reveal what I never said to you before._

_Celebrate, I'm alive again…_

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Sakura sighed a deep and meaningful sigh, at first she had been watching the training on her days off, now since the little incident with Naruto and Belgarion Tsunade had placed her at constant readiness watching over the training grounds, there was even talk of including her in the contingent of medics to be sent to the exam in hidden mist. 

She watched as a black beetle wandered across the log she was resting on before flying up to land on her sleeve. A mere week and a day earlier she would have shrieked and frantically brushed at it. Now, after her little encounter with Shino, she simply looked at it curiously and wondered what the young Aburame could tell her about this one. Was it another migratory bug? Or did it simply scurry in the leaf litter all its life? Was it just some bug? Or could it be used to excellent effect as many of the bugs Shino had told her of since then?

Idly the Kunoichi placed a finger in front of the creature and, obligingly, it climbed on. Looking at it she saw it was all black and had a perfectly round body with even the head only slightly marring the shape, it was waving its antennae toward her.

Almost in a trance she raised her finger to her forehead and nearly giggled as the bug began to wander over her pale skin. The mirth stopped suddenly however when she felt chakra flooding her mind from the bug's body, with it came information. This was one of Shino's own hive, a scout on a routine monitoring expedition, not intelligent only programmed to wander away in a set pattern then find its way back by homing instinct, it was instructed to break it's pattern for anything Shino might find interesting and record the events on the chakra in its system.

A lot of pointless memories of the bug's eye view of the forest trail leading to this spot, and then the course deviated and the bug homed in on a voice, a voice raised in song. With a little shock Sakura recognised her own voice alive with the strains of a song, the song she had been singing before she noticed the bug.

Then, depleted of chakra, the bug fell. Almost mechanically Sakura's hand came up and gently caught the falling shape, then she looked at the creature in confusion, what was she supposed to do? Then a memory served the answer to her on a silver plate, the image of Shino easily puffing chakra into a lifeless form.

With a small gesture of her free hand Sakura summoned up some healing chakra and covered the still bug in her hands, it was only moments before she felt movement and opened her hands to allow the creature its escape.

As it fluttered out of the clearing a brief smile followed it.

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Naruto stood primed for the last training session he would receive from Belgarion before he left the village tomorrow morning. He had somehow conned Jiraiya into allowing him to stay in Konoha until Belgarion felt he knew enough of the demon summoning that it would be safe for him to practice on his own until the exams, this had meant another week. 

"Alright, there's not much to say realy. You have as good a grip of the demonology as I did when I was kicked out to train on my own so instead of repeating myself today I might just teach you a little something else I know about summoning in general. You know any elemental jutsu?"

Naruto's eyes lit up, he was going to learn an elemental jutsu? _Yes!_ "No sir!"

"Oh … ok then forget that then." Belgarion began to walk away.

Naruto's face fell, "huh? Wait! Weren't you going to teach me one?"

"No, you need to know at least one to learn this skill."

"Err… wait! Does the kage bunshin count?" Naruto played his last hope card.

Belgarion blinked a few times before groaning mentally and responding, "Yes."

"Oh, well then I do have one."

A sound, almost a groan escaped Belgarion's lips, "The first step is to use it to create a volume of that element large enough to completely contain a summon, for this one you will need about four metres by about two and four high."

Naruto nodded and created thirty clones, performed a combination henge to turn them into a block of the described dimensions.

"Good now convert them all back to raw shadow without losing that shape."

The mottled orange block instantly turned black.

"Now here," Belgarion gestured to a spot next to the block, "three by three by three." Almost as he closed his mouth the block described appeared so he continued walking down the row and pointed to the next blank space, "one by four and two tall," this time he didn't even break stride and continued, "and lastly a block large enough to fit me."

When all the blocks were in place Belgarion slit Naruto's thumb with a dagger, "Now follow me and repeat what I say as you pass each block, striping each as you finish the incantation."

Belgarion spoke as he walked down the row and made the motion of drawing a stripe of blood on each one as he finished the line. Then he turned, "You get all that?"

Naruto nodded and began to walk down the row.

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From a slumber, unsilent.

_To the throne, supreme._

_Immortal and defiant._

_Against the world we stand._

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As Naruto striped the last block they all shattered, revealing the forms hidden inside. 

Belgarion placed his hand on the first one's face, a bird demon with a three metre wingspan and fearsome visage, "Viator, the one who comes from a slumber unsilent." Next he touched a cruel looking and bestial demon, "Efran, the one who moves toward the throne supreme." A shadowy horse shaped form with a single, bladed horn and the crackle of lightning on it's breath, "Madmartigan, the immortal and the defiant." Lastly he stood next to the figure of the woman-like creature he had used in his battle against Naruto, "Sorsha, one who is prepared to stand against the world."

"Remember the forms they assume now since summoning them from elements in those shapes will make it easier. If you ever find you cannot summon one it will be because that one is currently in my service, even creatures such as these cannot be in two places at once."

"So if I were to fight you and summon them first you would be unable to summon them yourself until I banish them?"

"Yes."

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Sakura chatted idly to Hinata, not really worried about what Belgarion and Naruto were doing since none of Naruto's summon creatures had broken loose since the first one. Kiba and Tenten were charging around Konoha forest sharpening their tracking and evasion skills in turns, Ino had decided to annoy Sakura today by tutoring Lee in the fine art of winning the affections of a certain pink haired Kunoichi, Neji had gone home to sleep and Shino was … somewhere. 

So Sakura alternated between tring to help Hinata figure out how to make Narutonotice her and asking random questions about Hinata's team mates, she hadn't noticed but as the conversation progressed questions about Kiba became less frequent and questions concerning a young Aburame become more and more the norm.

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Belgarion faced Naruto in one last duel of summoned demons and knew that now was the chance he was waiting for, he had already decided that Sakura needed to be present so when the demon 'went after some one who felt emotionally connected to Naurto' it could quite obviously ignore the medic nin in favour of Hinata. Everyone else was gone so only the two girls Belgarion and Naruto were present, now Naruto would have to leap to Hinata's rescue. 

After a few minutes of light probing Belgarion's demon struck with a lightning fast flurry of blows, knocking Naruto to the ground inside his protective circle as his illusion was shredded. Then as the demon fled Belgarion reached out with his mind and grabbed it.

Tried to grab it.

Like an eel it slipped his grasp and ran off, it's true form revealing itself, something disturbingly close to human and all the more disquieting for the subtlety of it's differences. Free of all bonds it charged at the only people outside of a magic circle anywhere in it's line of sight, Hinata and Sakura.

Belgarion struggled to shake off the shock of the demon's escape, as Naruto twitched from the shock of Belgarion's assault, Belgarion knew with dread certainty that the demon would be upon the two before either could react and defend and long before either Belgarion or Naruto could hope to intervene. Knowing it was futile unless the girls noticed the creature's approach but hoping anyway Belgarion formed a few seals and slammed his hands to the ground with a cry, "Seishin souzo!"

It was going to be too late but still Belgarion tore away the skin of his thumb and began an incantation.

Then as the two Kunoichi looked up in terror at the foe already too close to mount a defence against, as Belgarion flicked blood at the still materialising statues and knew it was at best going to be enough to save one of them, as Naruto leapt forward, claws lengthening and speed skyrocketing a grey figure simply stood between the raging demon and the girls. The figure made no effort to defend itself and simply took a hit to the stomach that cut it neatly in two before dissolving into a cloud of tiny black shapes that covered and seemed to halt the demon for the merest fraction of a second.

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Restless and soulless. 

_Rapture of peace._

_Deploring the hearts of man._

With a gooey splash Belgarion's bloody projectiles reached their targets, all three statues began to move.

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With a single shake of it's torso the demon dislodged the bugs and began to advance once more, only to be stopped when the small flying annoyances grouped once more to form Shino standing between the demon and Sakura, left arm outstretched as if desperately guarding something precious, his right arm was a mess of swarming bugs as they desperately spent their chakra and fell dead for the good of the hive. 

Then Naruto was bellow the creature and with one mighty blow sent it skyward, he was about to leap after it and begin his Naruto rendan when Shino placed his good hand on Naruto's shoulder and shook his head, pointing upward. The blonde's gaze shifted in time to catch a sword strike cutting through the left of the thing's torso, behind him a young looking samurai re-sheathed his katana in a fluid motion and turned away.

The toppling demon was then met by a creature of legend, a mighty greater black dragon caught it's head in one hand and slammed it back to earth, before also turning away.

Finally came a vague man shape, bound from the top of it's head to it's knees in white cloth and what looked like a straight jacket, over this it wore chains and manacles and it's entire body was dotted with long acupuncture needles in locations designed to numb pain and limit movement. It hobbled forward, it's exposed left eye locked on the demon and for the first time the escaped creature showed signs of fear, and not just normal fear but all out terror. It squirmed and writhed under that gaze but seemed unable to flee. Then with a slight glow in it's eye the man shape turned and walked away, behind it lay the quickly decomposing legs of a demon, it's torso and head already vaporised.

The swordsman exploded into a shower of cherry blossoms and wafted away on some unfelt wind, the dragon looked around a moment before taking to the skies and disappearing in a golden glow. The chained one whispered something behind it's bindings and turned to stone, leaving behind a statue of a tortured soul chained to four posts in the ground.

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Finished with his banishings Belgarion turned to find Sakura already tending to Shino's arm and Naruto looking concerned at a deep gash on Hinata's cheek, as he watched Naruto drew a Kunai and slashed his own cheek, where he cut his own face the wound on Hinata closed seamlessly. Belgarion shook his head and fell to the ground he silently cursed as he realised that this situation was quite definitely his fault, still Naruto did seem to be closer to Hinata now, and being shinobi a near deat experience was good for their preparation for the real world. Even as he thought them Belgarion knew those justifications were hollow. 

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Shino stared at the bug on his finger, it was packed with chakra. Not just chakra but correctly modulated healing chakra, this bug alone could have taken half the load of healing his arm without dying. Why had he held it back? … Because there was only one person who would revive a bug using an exhausting amount of healing chakra, because he didn't want to lose the memories the bug had gained on it's mission. He looked at the large open wound on his arm, he had asked Sakura to leave this wound for him to close himself. 

The bug crawled into the open cut and let it's chakra flow out, as the wound sealed itself Shino watched the memories unfold as if he were the bug running through the leaf mould, noticing a strange vibration, finding Sakura alone in the woods, listening to her song, sharing the memories of his day so far with her, awaking to a warm flood of chakra as she brought him back from the dead.

Shino touched his face, it was damp with tears. He nodded and began to create a new memory from his chakra. He blended his feelings memories into a ball of chakra and used it to revive the bug in his palm.

As it stood and flew off on it's new mission Shino already lay in a light doze.

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Sakura sat still, she was too tired to move yet the pain of her chakra exhaustion made it impossible to sleep. She didn't even move when the black speck landed on her head, didn't even react when it began to crawl around. Then she felt a familiar memory begin to unfold with the incoming chakra. 

She came to a clearing, she heard a voice raised in song, then she noticed something new. It wasn't her singing. It was a man's voice, firm and confident, quite pleasant on her ears. It was Shino's voice she realised as she came close enough to hear the words.

As she approached the singing faded and she only managed to catch one line before the incoming chakra eased her pain enough that she could not resist sleep. Still it was quite pleasant to hear.

_Just a kiss to reveal what I've never said to you before._

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Belgarion gave Naruto a few hundred yen to shout Hinata some ramen and left the clearing containing only a young Aburame bug master and an equally young pink haired medic. Belgarion followed Naruto's trail toward town for a while before branching off toward his own home and his own bed. 

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Naruto stood next to Jiraiya and stared back at the village. He groaned when he realised they would be travelling harder in order to make the full circuit, all the way up through waterfall to avoid the sound's borders before turning off toward lightning and finally coming back to mist village, and with the week lost here Jiraiya would set a cruel pace in order to make the whole trip in time for the exams. 

Still Naruto was happy he had stayed in his home village for the training, not only had he gained some new and useful skills but Hinata had been … nice. She was quiet but she had thanked him for treating her to ramen and seemed really worried about the cut on his face. The blonde fingered the mark as he thought, he didn't quite understand why he hadn't simply healed it and forgotten it but whenever he rubbed it he thought of a shy, pale girl with nearly silver pupil-less eyes, and he smiled whenever her face crossed his mind.

"Will you stop that?"

Naruto desperately suppressed a laugh, he knew that loud noises when Jiraiya was hung over would be met with unusual and painful tasks, judging by the look on the sennin's face Tsunade had offered to stand a few farewell drinks last night.

"Honestly, the way you grip it and grin you'd think you'd got a kiss there rather than a scar."

The blonde blinked at Jiraiya but said nothing, the man's speech patterns seemed to change at random 'the morning after' switching between 'old man', 'five year old' and a number of others with a fair handful of 'make it up as you go along' to boot.

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Tenten shook with suppressed rage, "But why? You trained Naruto, Lee, Neji AND Shino, why not me?" 

Belgarion blinked mildly in the face of her near-incandescent rage and replied with a frustratingly calm tone, "I don't train Shino, he uses a style similar to mine and he is the only one I can spar with in that manner."

"AAARRGHHH! What about the others you definitely train them!"

"I trained Lee because he suffers a situation similar to mine, I don't actually train him as such, his style is still his own and I've never taught him a technique, I simply cured him of the affliction and allowed him to do as he wished with the results. I trained Naruto because that type of summoning will be needed if he is to survive the … trials before him."

Tenten waited.

"and Neji?"

"I trained, and continue to train, Neji because he is blind due to my own actions, he is uniquely skilled and since his resurrection he has gained a potential unknown to this world since … well ever."

"Then why not me? I specialise in weapons just like you."

"No. You specialise in your family's style of combat using throwing weapons, when I actually use my sword in combat I use the Jinpu ryu satsujin ken, the nameless killing sword, a style to kill your opponent, not defeat him but end his life. That is not a style I am willing to teach to someone who is really only training so they can be closer to Neji." Tenten started to go red and looked ready to begin shouting, but Belgarion simply talked over the top of her before she could open her mouth, "Even so Neji is more interested in training and surpassing the head family than in settling down and indulging his hormones, still should you convince him to act otherwise my mission will be hindered. So I must ask that you turn your attentions away from Neji and perhaps even, if it isn't too much trouble, toward the good of your village. That should start with helping increase the number of active chuunin in the village, the best way to do that is to pass the chuunin exam and the best way to do THAT is to stop bothering Neji and perhaps spend sometime working with your team."

Belgarion wandered off to leave Tenten fuming to herself.

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It had been uneventful month after Naruto's leaving the village, Belgarion's lecture and a week following of even colder behaviour from Neji got Tenten over her 'short term hormonal imbalance' as Belgarion described it. Belgarion was all for young love (just look at his marriage to Ce'Nedra) but Tenten's infatuation was not that, simply a girlish obsession and a refusal to admit the facts. Since then Tenten had even been seen working on her teamwork with Ino and asking Sakura for tips on working with Naruto. But she had requested that if she became a chuunin Belgarion would teach her the nameless killing sword. 

But now all the teams were assembling and getting ready to travel to the hidden mist, there were all members of all three teams that had trained together in the clearing as well as two teams of older gennins Tsunade had judged worth the time away from missions to have a shot at the chuunin vest. Before each team stood it's assigned jounin, Gai chatted and beamed at the two older teams' assigned jounin while Kurenai stood to one side, clear of Konoha's green menace. Kakashi was still missing.

Nearby stood the medic contingent assigned to treat the leaf nins when necessary, one woman dark hair, Belgarion recalled her being called Shizune, one extremely old man and one girl with short pink hair. Sakura was listening to her custom radio and trying not to be too obvious in her glances toward Shino.

Belgarion leaned toward Team seven, "Is Kakashi always this late?"

Ino looked bothered but indicated she didn't know, Tenten however let out a long suffering sigh, "Argh gods! He's the latest man alive! Then he comes up with some _stupid_ excuse, always! But what's worse is the way he doesn't really care when we point out how obvious his lie is. Although, secretly, sometimes I think Sakura enjoys it, like an old habit that you could find reassuring or something."

Sakura too a quick look up at Shino before asking, "Hey, are you all waiting for Kakashi-sensei?" the was met with a round of nods, "Oh … er he isn't coming, Tsunade assigned Jiraiya to meet us there and act as team seven's instructor, he's going to meet us there. She just kept sending Kakashi-sensei out on missions."

Gai's eyes widened then he coughed and quicly led the expedition out of the village.

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So maybe i should make jokes about other things

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ok first off Hyouton, Daiyomonda hokori is about the best translation I can come up with for "Ice element, diamond dust" (three cheers for anyone who knows where that one came from :P) 

ooh and seishin souzo is creation of souls.

Wow tenten had a real spat there didn't she? That's prolly cos im still P&&ed off at Toast-nii since I joined up for a martial art and he agreed to join up to but he didn't come and I'm injured now and my sensei says I might need surgery depending on what ive injured during that lesson and toast-nii doesn't even _know_. Bastard.

And that method for analysing human serum? Well there was one in our archives so im betting dave was testing me, now ive got a week from today(wednessday) to write a report and submit it.

AND im P&&ed off at because it cut off my responses to your reviews last ch and after six chapters I still haven found a way to mark a scene change that doesn't filter.

Still life is all good, how are you?

This week's lyrical thanks go to Lacuna coil for purify (the song sakura was singing) and Raven throne for Obsidian horizon (the incantation Belgarion uses for those … other summonings)

:P any guesses about the significance of those new summons by the way? None? Aww. Oh wait I haven't posted it yet how can you respond.

Oh and responses from last time - dragon man, the scene with Naruto and Belgarion in the hospital is dedicated to you since you inspired it with your review, and dark lotus – I live on the central coast of NSW. How about you?

sleepy time now, I'll respond to your most recent reviews tomorrow when I go to post this chappie.

Dragon man: glad you liked it (i'm a fan of naruhina as well) and ive tried to show a little of Shino's thoughts too, but i thinki may have gone a little too far with that last demon scene, what do you think?


	8. Journey and arival

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death but later on, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Undecim spiritus lucis, chaptes beginicums

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The armourer blinked in confusion, it had been ages since he had last seen a 'greycloak' in the city of Riva, normally they only appeared in parades, which wasn't to say that grey cloaks didn't exist in the town. But the term greycloak referred to the military uniform of the island kingdom. Coarse, unbleached cloaks of goat's wool, or at least it had been. There were still a few veterans around town who would talk about the old days before the previous king had decided to change the uniform. 

There were even records in the libraries of a time when the cloaks were so common in Riva, and worn by anyone representing the kingdom to the outside world, that the term 'greycloak' was synonymous with the Riven people.

But that had been centuries ago, when Belgarion the first had ruled in Riva, when people had believed their king to be a sorcerer and that it was he who had returned during his great grandson's reign to steal the magical sword once said to have hung in the throne room.

The armourer glanced once more at the coins in his palm, they were dated to be around three hundred years old, not truly impossible certainly but worth more to the right collector than his whole business.

Then he thought of the customer, the man had ordered hard leather body armour and sturdy greves a few days ago. He had worn tattered and cut clothing that had once matched the description of what he sought then but when he returned he was wearing dark clothing of some heavy material and a 'greycloak', a proper one too not some cheap look alike. He had collected his order and paid with the antique coins.

In the end it was probably best not to dwell on it.

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Belgarion looked at his reflection as he stretched, it was odd to be dressed in Riven clothing again. He wore heavy black pants and his greves, his black cotton shirt protected him from the itches caused by the wool. He tossed his new cloak over his shoulders and fastened it in place before slinging his baldric over his right shoulder and across his torso to his left hip, lastly he sheathed his sword and attached the scabbard to the baldric. 

He ignored the glances of the townsfolk as he wandered toward a specific field just outside the city. As he walked he though about how much different Riva had become in the two millennia since he had first visited, gone was the nation of warriors, gone was the city that spent more regard on defence than on commerce. He glanced at where the orb sat on the pommel of his sword, covered by a leather sock, _Still I guess with the thing they were defending gone …_ Belgarion couldn't help but think how much more must have changed for his 'grandfather' who, even now, numbered more than five times Belgarion's years since birth.

It had been nice to spend a few days with those of his old friends blessed or cursed with as long a life as his, his aunt Polgara, 'grandfather' Belgarath, Polgara's husband Durnik (who was now Beldurnik but would ever be remembered as Durnik to Belgarion), as well as Aldur's other surviving disciples Beldin and the twins, Belkira and Beltira. He had even idly chatted for a few hours with Eriond, one of his companions who had risen to godhood as a result of the final confrontation between the two prophecies on this world.

Now he was headed back to that unnamed world where he had left Neji, Lee and Gai staring at him with his announcement that he would use a travelling jutsu to get some new clothes from his homeland.

He arrived at his destination. Looking around he saw the markings he sought and faced one. Extending his hands sideways, he crouched and twisted until he was facing ninety degrees to his original heading before he straightened once more. As his hands moved reality seemed to be moved with them, as if rather than moving himself back to that small world out in the cluster of newer stars he was actually staying still and moving all of creation until his destination happened to be directly under his feet.

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Kiba sniffed and picked out Lee, some twelve metres to his left. They had decided to train while on the march, honing tracking evasion and delaying skills while trying to keep to the pace the other teams set. Today victory would go to the one who could force the other to fall behind the main group by more than five minutes, Hinata's byakugan was tracking their progress. _Damn he's right there and I've sent Akamaru too far out scouting to call him back to help._

"Ready for a little shadow dancing Kiba?"

Kiba sighed audibly, "Haven't you learned that it's stupid to let the enemy know you're aware of his presence and planning something?"

He stopped speaking when the green clad boy appeared under him, Kiba easily caught the incoming foot before it could launch him into the air, he felt it and quickly ascertained it was real, not some image or trick to let the real kick past. Which led to some surprise when a foot planted itself squarely in his face, almost detachedly he noticed that it was Lee's right foot, the same one he held trapped in his grip. As he rose Kiba's slightly stunned mind paid special attention to the foot he held dissolving in a puff of smoke to reveal a foot shaped chunk of wood. One eyebrow raised as he realised that Lee had used the replacement technique on only one part of his body.

"Haven't you learned that if the enemy dose something stupid, he usually had some trick planned?" came Lee's voice, centimetres behind him, "Oh well, leaf shadow dance – Koraseru Rendan!" Freezing combo

A touch so cold it seemed to burn graced Kiba's shoulder and he felt his control over that area lessen. Turning in the air Kiba began to retaliate and by the time they hit the ground both boys were unready to land on their feet.

Kiba breathed heavily, looking at Lee he saw an opponent that was in as bad a condition as his own, they both panted and while Lee's blows had stiffened Kiba's joints with the cold his own had rent Lee's flesh or seized up joints with his caustic blood.

"Looks like your 'trick' didn't work out eh?"

"Whatever could you mean Kiba-san? I managed to hit you with the Koraseru rendan, I now have a major advantage."

Kiba laughed, "Advantage? You've been weakened as much as me, you're no closer to the others than I am and you haven't even scratched Akamaru. How are you at an advantage?"

Lee smiled a smile that could have blinded a small nation, "There are two ways to win this Kiba-san, one is to force your opponent to fall behind the others by more distance than can be covered in five minutes (at top speed, not the speed the group was travelling at), the other is to reach Gai-sensei's side before Sakura-san is able to spot your opponent's approach. Since Gai-sensei is scouting ahead of the others by a good two miles you have obviously discounted this as a likely method for victory, I have not."

"You idiot! You're no closer to Gai than I am! You're just as worn out as I am, by the time you get to Gai I can easily be chatting to Sakura about how stupid you are and then we'll have to start fighting again to fall back until one of us gains enough advantage."

Lee looked properly chastised, "We-ell yes, that _would_ be the case if I were in fact Lee. However since I'm a clone and the real me will be tapping Gai-sensei on the shoulder in the next ten seconds…"

Kiba looked startled for a second before regaining his composure, "No, you intend to have me run off after 'you' so you can catch me from the rear, you were able to hit me and that means shadow clone, if any, but when I hit you, you were cut and bled. This is another trick."

Lee's smile reached the point where it was in danger of decapitating him, his teeth _shone, _"Who says only shadow clones can hit people? Then again who says shadow clones can only take one hit? I know I've seen one of Naruto's clones last nearly a minute after being struck."

"You're grasping at straws now, there's no way I'd believe you and just run off."

"Oh," whispered Lee, in quite the most disappointed tone in the history of man. Then he looked up and smiled his thousand watt smile once more, before turning into some dark liquid and running over the path to disperse among the shadows.

Kiba's eyes widened and he cursed under his breath. Then he was up and charging toward the group of other gennins.

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Ino was going insane. There was no one to talk to. Well actually there were sixteen other people with whom she _could_ talk but it wouldn't really be wise right now. She couldn't just go over and talk to Sakura, it wouldn't be right to interrupt her quiet time with Shino, besides, she wasn't completely certain the bug master wouldn't have her eaten alive as retribution for her interruption. Tenten was just as bad, she had decided that even if Belgarion was right and what she felt was just an infatuation it had the potential to become something more. She was working on that now. 

Hinata was occupied keeping track of Lee and Kiba, Shizune and Gerin(the other medic) were deep in discussion about … something medical, everyone else, Kurenai, the two other jounin and the six older gennin, was simply strangers to her, not someone she was confident enough to simply walk over and start talking to.

Ino looked around, about three minutes had passed. So her inspection of her fellow travellers had used up three minutes, maybe she should have dragged it out more. Still she had now used up three of the three hundred and sixty minutes remaining until they reached then next village and therefore that night's inn. Ino was going to be insane before then.

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Lee was the first to enter the inn that night, a simple establishment with a rather droll sign over the door proclaiming it to be the 'don't go inn'. Upon a quick scan of the inn's customers Lee spotted an amazingly tall man at the bar with a grey cloak and a familiar great sword. Lee stood stock still for a moment. 

Gai, who had picked the inn straight away when he read the sign, checked if there were rooms and ran back to tell the others, poked his head around his frozen student, "Ah, Belgarion-kun good to see you managed to catch up to us."

Lee unfroze as the figure turned to greet Belgarion with a smile, "How did you get here so fast?"

"I used that travelling jutsu I told you about."

"But you said your homeland was farther away than the total distance from the eastern shore of water to the western boarder of sand, even covering a thousand kilometres each day you couldn't do a return trip in only three days."

"What can I say? It's a good jutsu."

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Belgarion found himself sitting next to Hinata and one of the older gennins at dinner. He chuckled at himself for thinking of the poor kid as older, he couldn't be past sixteen, not only Belgarion's true age but the age he appeared to be were greater than those 'older' gennin. He had enquired upon arrival and found the inn served only sake so he didn't even bother to try and convince her of his age, even after centuries he could not get used to the odd tasting drink and longed for the meads of his homeland, quietly he cursed himself for not bringing some back. 

Belgarion listened as the dinner table conversation wandered aimlessly from worry over what was in the tests to mirth at Lee and Kiba's ardent rivalry, he didn't truly become involved in the conversation but it was pleasant to be there.

Then he blinked as a question interrupted his thoughts, he and Shino were the only ones at the table, he must have phased out at some point, "Erm … sorry what was that?"

"I asked if I could seek advice from you as the oldest and presumably most experienced," here he glanced over to where Kurenai was performing a very energetic, very provocative and very drunken dance on a table, "sane person I know."

Belgarion blinked and wondered what other little eccentricies Kurenai indulged in, it seemed you couldn't survive as a jounin for more than a week without being a little weird. "Sure go for it."

"What does one do in order to interact successfully with members of the opposite gender?"

Belgarion took a short moment to arrange the sentence in his mind and translate it from 'Shino speak' into 'normal person' before replying, "Well women tend to like 'friendly' you know? I would suggest trying to smile a bit now and then and letting her know you enjoy her company, you may know that and she may know that but she will like to be reminded every so often. Having said that, nothing will irritate her more than you playing false, never be any different than your true self because there's nothing more hurtful than loving someone who is really just a mask hiding a true personality. Relax around Sakura-chan and don't try and sway her, simply talk to her as you would another … oh wait … well talk to her like you would someone else if for some reason you actually talked to someone else for more than the bare minimum of time."

Shino stiffened slightly, "Sakura … you knew?"

Belgarion laughed, "Of course, it's amazing how many people think you can talk about a romance that's been developing for a few months around them and not have them realise who it is you're talking about."

Shino nodded, as if simply storing the data away for later perusal, and left the room.

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Sakura sat on the roof in silence, she had noticed Shino's presence wandering toward the stairs and considered what to do. Eventually she heard him reach the roof and walk over to a spot on the other side of the roof to her, away from her but their heads were separated by a few centimetres of tile. 

Suddenly Sakura began to sing, without her radio to go by she wasn't as confident, it sounded the same to observers but to her mistakes were not masked by the sound of the music and she suddenly felt self conscious.

Shino noticed the difference as a slight difference in her tone, she wasn't singing because she thought no one could hear her now she was nervous, she was worried he would disapprove despite saying he enjoyed her singing in the past. Quietly, almost to herself, Sakura's song wound on and she began to relax, one hand shifted slightly and brushed Shino's hair, as she pulled back from reflex she felt Shino's hand reach out to stop her.

So they lay there, on opposite sides of the roof, each not quite holding the others hand but still keeping close enough for contact. Sakura was once again pleased to find Shino's hand was warm, she started a new song as her first ended. This one was not hesitant, it was calm and assured in the knowledge that her audience would enjoy it, and Sakura sang as though to herself so as not to alert others to their shared location.

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"Here." 

Lee and Neji looked up too see Belgarion offering two grey cloaks with the metal plates of Konoha Hitai-ate attached over the left breast.

Neji simply nodded thanks and accepted his but Lee blinked in confusion, "What are these for?"

"Well when I was visiting my hometown I stopped to get some souvenirs and since that was my people's national dress and neither of you thought to pack warm clothes despite the fact we're going to the water country," Belgarion smiled and tilted his head slightly, "unless that spandex of yours is a lot warmer than it looks you will need this for the exam."

Lee's eyes lit up and he began to move his mouth toward a long and poetic and ultimately longwinded speech of thanks, had not Neji beaten him to it, "It WAS the national dress of your people? How does something like that come to change?"

"Our nation was founded specifically for the defence of an artefact, that was all our people lived for and we became somewhat of a fortress on our little island. We were entirely self sufficient but we didn't have much in the way of luxury and most of the nation wore cloaks made of unbleached goat's wool, in the four hundred years before we opened our boarders to trade it was so much a part of us that we simply wore it everywhere, any Riven outside out boarders wore the cloak at all times and soon 'greycloak' became the common term for someone from Riva, much like 'leaf' is used to describe nins from Konoha. Then, a thousand or so years on, the line of our king ended with the assassination of his entire family bar one child, the one child was hidden away for safety and allowed to father children and continue the line in secrecy."

Neji twitched slightly as the urge to point out that he had only asked why the cloak wasn't national dress anymore, not the history of the nation, but the unusual phenomenon of Belgarion talking about his homeland kept him silent.

"Then, after another thousand odd years, one of the survivor's descendants came forth and by dint of the artefact recognising him was crowned king Belgarion the first."

Here came Lee's excited interruption, "You're a king!"

"No you fool, this is still more than one lifespan ago by the tone of the story, he was obviously named after him." Neji's voice bit like a saw across Lee's interruption.

Belgarion smiled and wondered if it was right to allow the deception of his allies before he decided that it would be best simply not to lie, but not to tell the truth either, "Yes Neji, I have the same name as the godslayer." Lee and Neji both returned shocked expressions at the word godslayer but held back and let the story continue, "Belgarion the godslayer took up the sword and killed the dark god Torak, it was a great victory for the prophecy I serve. Then at what was thought to be the final confrontation between the two prophecies the artefact was destroyed, leaving only the sword that was forged using it to mark the king's line. That was a great blow to the Riven people, they began to lose their sense of self and without the object of their protection the island ceased being a fortress and became a nation. Then when a thief stole the sword from the palace at Riva the people were simply lost all that made them Rivans and became just another nation, the grey cloak became a military uniform only and then it was abolished altogether. Those were very hard to come by, I had to get them custom made. But, all things said, it is worth it to me – one of the last members of the 'greycloak' generation – for that little taste of home. You don't have to wear them but it will be cold in mist."

Lee was positively moved by the story and vowed to wear the cloak in anything approaching cold weather, Neji however focused on another aspect of the story.

"_Belgarion the godslayer took up the sword and killed the dark god Torak, it was a great victory for the prophecy I serve."_

He kept comparing it to something that Belgarion had said to him when he had first mentioned the prophecies.

"_I know the gods of my homeland exist, I've met each of them. … Torak – dragon god of Angarak, hated enemy, slain foe."_

Amidst all the dramatic tears from Lee and Neji's calculating stare, Belgarion felt satisfaction knowing that he had successfully placed suspicions in the right mind without letting the other person present catch on.

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Gai was speechless, the day had dawned cold. Lee had been good to his word and now wore his new cloak, Neji had reacted to his reluctance to face the brisk air outside his bed by donning his and of course Belgarion wore his at all times anyway. Team Gai, usually the flashiest of teams by dint of his and Lee's beautiful green outfits and Neji's unusually high 'Bishounen' factor, had become a painting of drab grey uniformity. Gai twitched as he realised his accepting stance on clothing choice prevented him from commenting, the clothing was even good for camouflage and easy to move in cutting off any comment on the practicality of the apparel, but Gai just couldn't quell his distaste for the clothing. 

At least Lee still wore his normal clothes underneath, but even that wasn't enough to quiet Gai's unknown problem with the cloaks. Well maybe someone else would voice an objection and he would be able to figure out why the clothes repulsed him so.

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"Hey Neji …" 

Tenten shivered, partly because Neji had begun to act in an alien manner, ever since his blinding he had been changing but now he didn't even reflexively turn his head, only the change in his ever present chakra cloud told her his attention was focussed on her. It was like those times she had tried to talk to him while his Byakugan was active.

Mostly however she shivered because of the cold. Poor Tenten had forgotten her coat, it was in the big bag on her back and she wasn't about to go rummaging about in that for an hour, especially when it was easier to keep warm by staying within the field of Neji's 'sight' and let the chakra heat you.

"… yes?"

Neji's voice snapped her out of her trance, "Err … I was just wondering why you and Lee have suddenly gone for the 'Belgarion junior' look."

Neji paused for a second, as if ignoring an insult by force of will, "It's cold."

"But you normally just channel some chakra to keep warm, isn't that even easier now that you have a big cloud of chakra surrounding you?"

Once more Neji twitched as if pining down some difficult emotion by sheer brute force of will, "… I like this cloak." _it is warm in a way not described by such mundane terms as 'heat'._

"Neji … why are you so cold to me? Even when we were team mates you were more terse with me than with Lee … why."

Neji was beginning to show more of the will he was exerting to quash this unknown emotion, his slight strain had become a visible twitch of the muscle between his shoulder blades, "Always when you speak, I feel your intent radiate from each word. When on a mission you are as exemplary a shinobi as possible for you abilities. But when we aren't in a dire situation you never lose sight of your goal. I would be betting that you would achieve this goal were it not for the fact that your goal is impossible. As a member of the Hyuuga branch family I will wed whomsoever I am assigned in order to strengthen the bloodline. It is that simple."

Tenten's voice was near cracking, "B-but you aren't a Hyuuga anymore, not even a member of the branch." Rather than a damning argument she spoke the words like a lifeline.

Neji sighed, all of whatever emotion he was suppressing seemed to release with that breath and he was almost relieved when he spoke, "That is true, in the end that was just an excuse not a reason."

Neji sped up and took a place in the procession where Tenten was just outside of the reach of his 'sight'. Tenten shivered as the warming chakra fled, momentarily she thought of catching up and hoping Neji would at least allow her close enough to keep warm. Then she sighed, knelt down and opened her backpack to search for that jacket.

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As Belgarion strolled idly at the rear of the group he watched his fellow gennins with the same interest one would normally reserve for something that doesn't really interest them but is better than nothing. 

Lee and Kiba had somehow dragooned Shino into some new endurance training, the first one to reach the village where they would stay that night and return to the group with a briefing on acceptable inns for Gai-sensei. So Sakura chatted idly with Ino, she didn't say much but Ino spoke enough for both of them, Belgarion guessed Ino was really enjoying the chance for a conversation. Tenten was looking dejectedly at Neji's back, for a moment Belgarion considered offering some kind words, but there was nothing he could say that wouldn't A) anger Neji or B) make Tenten think he approved of her chasing the blind boy.

With both her team mates off training with Lee Hinata was … Belgarion glanced around, his gaze seeking the quiet girl. Then from behind him came a moan, he turned and saw exactly where the Hyuuga heiress had got to, she struggled at the back of the line, supporting a very hung over Kurenai while Gai and the two other jounin sensei supported each other in a groaning wobbling line. Belgarion silently thanked providence that he hadn't been able to get his hands on some mead last night.

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Kirigakure no sato, the village of hidden mist, rose before them like an enormous shadow in the near solid grey air around them. In the end Shino had been the one to report that tonight's village was in fact their destination. 

In the village they were given rooms in a large complex, more like a barracks than dormitory, one room to each team. On one side of the small window was a triple bunk for the team, on the other was a single bed and workspace for the jounin sensei, the door occupied the other corner adjacent to the Jounin's bed and inn the last corner stood a row of equipment lockers whose design had obviously given consideration to nothing but functionality.

"Wow, it's like we're in a military encampment isn't it." Lee's voice was quiet, almost awed.

Belgarion's voice was oddly comfortable as he replied, "Yes, of all the hidden villages, mist was always closest to my own homeland. This place is the only nation to have been to war with every single other shinobi nation at some point in it's history. Here people specialise in water jutsu or illusions and a taijutsu specialist is almost always a swordsman and if not they use some more exotic weapons. Anyone who fights unarmed is a ninjutsu specialist. And anyone who doesn't fight is a summoner or illusionist. Anyone above gennin rank has killed for his home."

Lee was silent as he digested this information but Neji piped up, "How do you know so much about this place?"

Belgarion smiled, "Before Konoha … adopted me, I wandered the shinobi lands as a mercenary. Two years ago I was allowed to attend the final round of the previous chuunin exam here in mist. Gai-sensei was here as an observer as well. We didn't know each other then so we never talked but I can't forget the bright green spandex and bowl cut cheering for every Konoha entrant."

"So you can give us some tip for the exam? Like what is likely to happen?"

"Not really, I only saw the final matches and I was told that part of the exam is the same in every country."

"Well what about the level of opposition we face?"

"Well … mist nins often take the bloody path, defeating an opponent of equal strength quickly without killing him is considered a jounin level skill," Lee's eyes widened and Neji raised an eyebrow, "but for us the main danger will be cloud nins, you notice that none attended the exams in Konoha right?"

Lee and Neji nodded for Belgarion to continue, "After the betrayal by cloud when we were signing the peace treaty and our deception using Neji's father, instead of ending the war between Konoha and Kumo became a cold war, a shinobi war. So it is unwise to send gennin to an exam held in the enemy village, it is also usual to try and knock off as many promising gennins from the enemy village over the course of and exam in a neutral village as possible, our deaths in this exam would only improve cloud's position over leaf. It is for a similar reason that I don't expect any sand nins here for this exam."

"So sand is at war with mist?" Neji sounded almost like a child faced with an interesting lesson.

"Well yes, but only to the same extent that we are at war with the cloud. And that may be a thing of the past, but it was the case when I attended the last exam here. We need to watch out whenever we face a Kumo nin, in mist the exam rules often lend themselves to bloodshed, the chuunin exam in Kirigakure has been the bloodiest battlefield in the war between Kumo and Konoha."

With a start Neji realised that his body had been on auto pilot for the entire conversation and all three had finished settling in to their room. Lee's hand was already on the door nob and suddenly they were on their way to meet Gai at the mess hall.

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Insert spell of chapter ending here

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wiew! Im happy again. Ive got two job offers and I may be working for BHP steel or a mining explosives manufacturer by the next time I post a chapter. 

And you know, when hes not being a slave driver Dave is one hell of a funny bastard. I had the fortune to be observing as he taught a class on polarimetry and he was trying to explain how one got polarised light. He started with the usual think of a polaroid sheet like those vertical blinds, and then he froze for about twenty seconds in deep thought like he was about to stumble on some sort of revelation and he said "it could even be Venetians really …"

Dopey tit. Still I rofled my waffle and he was almost too scared to ask what I found funny. Actually I get that a lot; sa-chan thinks I intimidate him.

Hmm im all happy and I haven't seen toast-nii all week, despite or because? Must be despite since as soon as I mentioned his name I started missing him. But alas it's the Easter weekend and I have to do family stuff, all these public holidays and work on Tue means I can't post this till Wednesday even though it is ten to four on Friday arvo right now.

and yay for me finally finding a way to mark a scene break

**Dragon man:** thanks your support is tremendous, and your insight into the story is almost scarily accurate some times :P. as a side note I have to add that it really does make me feel good to read a fic like yours.


	9. Voltage and inquisition

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Wow, i run out of ideas for this chapter start thing really quick

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Naruto used an odd style, at first one could be forgiven for thinking he just attacked randomly but during the week or so since he had joined them in hidden mist Ino and Tenten had begun to realise the almost insane logic behind each movement and even appreciate it's effectiveness. 

In the same way that internal styles like the Jyuuken opposed external styles like Lee's Tekken, Naruto's style opposed circular styles that sought to deflect an opponent's attack. Any attack Naruto made was almost designed to be easily evaded or redirected and since it was designed such, rather having than the force of the blow used against him, Naruto harvested the forces and fed them into a second attack or a third attack. With each deflected or evaded blow the next became like another cycle around a particle accelerator (which incidentally neither girl had ever encountered the concept of and thus had no idea what to compare Naruto's style to).

Over the month he and Jiraiya had spent touring the shinobi lands Naruto had also invented something of a new jutsu, having perfected the method for sculpting the Rasengan (both the miniature and full sized versions) into usable weapons and starting on the sixth step of the training for the perfected rasengan – throwing the items sculpted from the swirling balls – Naruto decided to bring his team closer.

So he created a rather simple jutsu to allow Ino and Tenten to hold and wield weapons he had crafted. Of course Tenten had taken to the idea quickly, she was able to hold and use nearly two dozen kunai shaped chakra bolts at a time by the end of the week. The way Ino had taken to using a short sword crafted of two large rasengan and four smaller ones had surprised the three, especially Ino herself. While she still preferred her family mind jutsu, she had found that when it came to forcing your foe into a position where she could employ such a jutsu few things were as helpful as the added power of a sword coupled with the speed she gained from the fact the weapon literally weighed nothing.

As they headed back to the dormitories for a good night's sleep before the first test began at six in the evening the next day all three smiled.

Ino smiled because she had begun to feel there was hope for her in this exam, that she was there to become a chuunin not simply because Tsunade had ordered as many of the rookie nine attend as possible.

Tenten smiled because, for the first time since being replaced by Belgarion, she felt like she had a team, something she had begun to think impossible without … _best not to think about him. Dwell on the good, dwell on the good._

And Naruto smiled because … just because really. Life was too good right now to explain the smile with just one thing, he had a team, Ero-sennin was lending him the cash to eat out at the only ramen bar in the village and even enough extra to have a guest along. Naruto had already decided to ask Hinata, he had learned early on that ramen tasted sooo much better when eaten in company and Hinata was the only one in a month's travel that Naruto enjoyed eating with as much as he enjoyed eating with Iruka. Actually he was beginning to thing he enjoyed her company more, but he always dismissed the thought as being simply too much time spent with the perverted hermit.

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The doors slammed back. Three figures entered the assembly area. They wore cloaks that almost hid them in the thick evening mist, even at the three metres that separated them form the nearest group. Below one's feet the ground crackled and froze, then snapped under the figure's weight. Beside him strode another, some of the gennin nearby fell to their knees under the pressure of the chakra that probed the area around them. Behind them strode the third, almost unremarkable after the two proceeding, until it's hood turned to survey the gennin arrayed in the meeting area. Then a killing intent so great even the chuunin assistants to the examiner turned to face it in shock, as it swept over those still shaking from the effects of the second's presence three gennin began to shake violently and one simply fell unconscious amongst his team mates. 

Then, almost as if it felt it was being out done, the first turned down the temperature even more and the prevailing mist began to crystallise and fall as snow.

The one with the fearful gaze glanced at the snow storm as the official by the door accepted the team's paperwork.

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Belgarion looked at his Lee mates and rolled his eyes, they had decided to intimidate those gennin intelligent enough to pose a threat by entering the assembly with such a show of ambient and (hopefully) apparently effortless power that they would discount their team as a target. Neji had also pointed out that a display like that would cause some of those gennin who were eager to prove themselves to seek them out and take the team down. Belgarion had pointed out that since that would likely happen during the section of the exam where you had to target other teams to pass they would not need to hunt for their prey since their prey would hunt them and probably even request a straight out challenge. Of course for this to work the display of power had to be so ostentatious that only the most inexperienced and overconfident teams would come, the easiest pickings. 

Lee had been storing up cold chakra all day and now wherever he walked frozen footprints remained and the air was bitterly cold.

Neji had compressed his 'sight' from its current hundred metre relaxed state into a nearly physical aura fifty metres wide, weaker gennin would have trouble breathing in there.

And Belgarion, he had spent half the day dwelling on the past, working on his rage and remembering the losses he had felt. When Torak had killed Durnik, his wife's death by old age, the 'demon', who was in fact only a man changed by the battle of Sekigahara, who had nearly slain Kyo right before him. All of the people close to him, both form his home world and from others he had visited, had met cruel and painful fates in his mind this day. He had spent the second half of the day compressing and hardening those feelings until he projected a killer intent almost as tangible as Neji's chakra field. Sure it barely approached Tsunade in a bad mood but for a gennin it was frightening.

At this rate they seemed to be attracting more unwelcome attention from the examiners than excitement from the hotheads they were hoping to attract.

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"Alright, all those gennin participating in the exam are to check their weapons with the chuunin at these desks and proceed to the exam hall over there. No metallic objects are to be taken into the exam room, on pain of death, you can pick your stuff up from the desk after the exam." 

Kiba nodded to himself as he lined up alongside Shino and Hinata. He glanced to watch the examiner who had spoken, a tall woman with grey hair and her mist Hitai-ate hanging from a strap at her shoulder, she wandered in the direction of the exam hall she had indicated so Kiba thought it a good chance she was head examiner for this section.

Akamaru barked. "Hmm … sorry what was that?"

An almost exasperated noise escaped the puppy and he gestured at Hinata with his head.

"Wha? Oh sorry Hinata-chan, what was that?"

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Naruto sat and fidgeted, the leaf teams had all been checked in to the hall by now but the much larger lines of Mist and Stone gennin were still shuffling in. glancing around Naruto caught sight of the rows of Kumo nins on the other side of the hall, the organisers had decided it wise to separate them during the first exam in Mist and the tradition stuck to this day, many were looking at the Leaves with open hostility. One group in particular was conferring with the team immediately in front of them and glancing at Neji's team almost constantly. 

Naruto leant forward and moved to tap Belgarion on the shoulder when a voice rang out, "Alright now you're all in here we can start."

As those words escaped her mouth the chuunin surrounding the hall formed a seal. All at once Naruto's hair stood on end and those in the room tensed. In front of him Belgarion spread his arms and shouted.

"_Ap Raio!_"

Almost simultaneously Neji retracted his sensory chakra and formed the densest layer he could on his skin and from Lee Naruto sensed a chakra associated with doton manipulations. Taking that que Naruto extended a cloud of Kyuubi chakra as dense as the covering on Neji's skin but vast enough to cover Tenten and Ino as well as himself.

There was a wave of pain and an electric shock passed through the crowd, as it continued Ino's knees began to sag as the electricity not fielded by Naruto's chakra weakened her but by then an explosion rocked the hall. Grunting with effort Naruto glanced to where it had taken place, amongst the Rain nins sitting in the middle of the row for members of lesser shinobi villages.

Then it stopped.

Looking around Naruto saw that not one nin in ten still stood. There was his team, Neji's team and two members of the of the older gennin teams still standing from leaf, amongst the others stood two full teams from cloud, a scattering of mist and stone nins and two from the grass. And one rain nin stood shocked and horrified, shaking and covered with the blood of his team mate who had been at the centre of the small explosion.

"Very well. We have our first team disqualified from the exam. Team 207 from rain, since your team mate is now unable to continue your team is now out. Leave the hall now, you may inform the medics on stand by of the location of your fallen and unconscious team mates and also let them know one on your team tried to smuggle in something made of metal." the wide eyed rain nin nodded dumbly and began the long walk to the door, "Those of you who still have a full team conscious and able to stand automatically pass this exam without the need to take part in the next few hours, you may proceed to your village's waiting area and await the end of the exam. Those of you awake with team members who are not, I suggest that you try to wake them up as those teams not completely awake within an hour will fail," with a snap of her fingers a water clock began to count out the minutes and words to the effect of her prior statement appeared on the chalk board behind her for the benefit of those teams with no members as yet awakened, "when you have a full team you may go into the next room." here she gestured to a door in a different wall to the one Naruto and Neji's teams were now exiting.

Upon seeing two teams each from Konoha and Kumo exiting the building tow of the chuunin guarding the exit wandered over to guide them to their respective waiting areas and prevent violence outside the exam itself. When the leaves reached their waiting area, a building on the opposite side of the village to where the cloud had been led, the chuunin guiding them simply turned and walked back to his post.

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Neji's head lolled to one side, and he gazed at those sharing the room with him. They had had hot showers and were now resting the tired muscles from their electrocution. Lee lay asleep on a lounge several metres away, Ino was asleep and drooling quietly on Tenten's shoulder, who in turn leaked saliva onto the blonde's hair. The older team who had had two members standing after the assault was being treated by the medic team from Konoha, they had wandered in as the girls were wandering out of the showers and gone straight to seek Shizune's help. The only ones who had not been barely standing after the assault were Naruto and Belgarion and both of them were not even tired in the least. Naruto was still soaking in the baths while Belgarion sat humming a tune in a chair next to the one that held Neji's reclining form. Then Neji had a thought, not a truly amazing thought but enough to keep him awake and interested. 

"Belgarion-san."

"Yes?"

"How did you escape that assault without harm? What was that jutsu and how did you learn it?"

Neji 'watched' Belgarion's face, the shapes Neji felt told him the older boy was considering something but the misshapen sections of the eyeball around the pupil did not falter, Belgarion never turned his gaze.

Finaly the sandy haired boy sighed, "Ap Raio is a spell that makes lightning fall in love with the caster, a first timer could use it to dampen the effects of a lightning jutsu while a more advanced user can have the lightning appologise and heal all the wounds caused by other lightning jutsu used on him or replenish some of his chakra."

"Spell?"

"Yeah, while nin and genjutsu rely on body and spirit chakra there are other skills that rely more on mental focus or contract with natural spirits or invocation of powerful forces. Usually those are called magic, it seems to be a common name for it wherever I go. You used one of those skills when you opened the door to that hut in Konoha, and if you have listened to me and practiced like I said then you are on the way to being quite a skilled mage as well as a ninja."

"How do you know all these things? Even Gai-sensei has never heard of a lot of the stuff you taught me and Lee."

"What is this? Twenty questions?"

Without missing a beat Neji grinned, "Yes, that was number three."

Once more Neji felt Belgarion looking at him and concentrating. Then he glanced around, as if to make sure no one else was going to hear this. When he spoke it was quiet, "Remember those two prophecies I told you about?" Neji nodded, "the light prophecy has already won, those confrontations I talked about don't realy mean much these days. This world and many others are a result of the last big battle between them, realy now those in service to the prophecy of light are just having a bit of a mop up operation, to pick off the last remaining influence of the prophecy of dark. I wander through various worlds and usually I arrange things so that if a child of dark shows up that world can deal with it on its own, sometimes I personally fight a child of dark and sometimes I simply observe the confrontations. I use my spare time to learn new things on all the worlds I visit and leave behind skills not native to that world as payment for my learning."

Neji stared at Belgarion (well turned his head in that direction anyway), awake and aware for the first time since leaving the exam hall but somehow not able to bring himself to disbelieve.

"At first I was arrogant since my own native skills could replicate any of the effects created by those I met. Then I went to a planet called Earth, I met a woman called Patrisha Xiaoyu and was quite surprised when she bested me outright in both taijutsu and spellcasting. She introduced me to the WuLung, the dragon wizards, in the country called China and explained to that they were part of a larger organisation called the Akashic brotherhood which was in turn one of nine such groups collectively called the traditions.

"They categorised magic into nine spheres of influence and graded ones mastery of any one sphere on a scale of one to ten. Someone with a mastery ranked five was able do anything conceivable by a human mind within that sphere of influence, that is truly a scary thing to understand when you consider that the spheres included such fields as time and mind, but someone with a sixth ranked sphere was able to do things that a human of a lower level of enlightenment simply couldn't even think of. At the seventh rank they transcended the gods of my homeworld.

"When I saw that I decided to learn everything, not simply the arts of that world but _everything_. I trade my knowledge for more knowledge on every world I encounter." Belgarion sighed, "but here, on your world, I have a problem."

Neji's face screwed up in confusion and mentally scoffed at the improbability of such a story, but at an even more primal level Neji still refused to disbelieve, and that kept him silent and with rapt attention.

"You see in all of my exchanges I have been forbidden to teach anyone a skill that would enable them to leave their homeworld, its ok if they already know but if I teach them when they would not have known without me or if I give them the potential to discover it themselves …" Belgarion sighed heavily, "That is why I keep getting irritated at Tenten for chasing you. One I finish my time here and move on I will either have to take the one who I gave that potential or kill them, but Tenten keeps trying to get attached to you and that will either mean a killing or heartbreak for her."

Neji's brow furrowed, "Tenten? But you haven't taught her anything have you?"

Shaking his head in resignation Belgarion responded, "It isn't Tenten I will have to kill or take with me but she will be heart broken when you're gone."

Neji sat back, had he eyes they would have widened, "I have the poten.."

"Shhh!"

Neji cut that thought off as Hinata's team wandered in the door, smiling and tired but not looking as worse for wear as the prior team.

"Yo, what was your test?"

Kiba flopped down in a chair around the same table already surrounded by Belgarion and Neji as well as Lee's sleeping form, "… you mean you don't know? Wasn't yours the same as everyone else's?"

"Nope, we managed to all be awake after that raiton jutsu and they said we passed since our full team was awake, same for Naruto's team and the only team to pass before you is still in with the medics."

"Ah, well that would explain it. You passed at the 'capture' phase. Once the more critical cases are dealt with we should visit the medics too." Shino made the three statements as though no one in the room could possibly fail to understand and for the briefest of seconds they all believed him, then came the realisation that they still had no info on what the test was and none of them had gained any information from the Aburame at all.

As one Neji and Belgarion turned back to Kiba, "You see the test was constructed to ascertain the loyalty you hold to your village, that stunning jutsu was a simulation of you being captured in battle, those whose full team remained conscious were considered to have evaded capture since to remain standing your will had to have easily exceeded that needed to withstand the next phase."

"Oh ok so we were let off because they thought we could take the next phase easily? You know … I feel kinda ripped off." Naruto had heard Kiba's voice and was now dressed and wandering out in search of Hinata.

"No way. Trust me the next part would have been much better left out, they interrogated us on the secrets of our village and the weaknesses of our team mates. Those that cracked were instantly failed and a summary of the information leaked was given to representatives of their home villages so they could be punished properly. Those that held strong and refused to spill the info they wanted got to move onto the final part of this stage, torture.

"Man it was harsh, they used genjutsu, pressure points and certain acupuncture techniques that don't leave marks. They even resorted to beating me with a phone book to get Hinata to talk. Actually, now I think of it, they seemed to really want to fail Hinata, they were extra hard on her and even made her watch when the did me and Shino. Nasty bastards."

As one those eyes around the table turned to face the blushing Hyuuga, where normaly her voice was quiet and hesitant and quite feminine now what escaped her lips was a broken and parched whisper, "N-no I-I'm fine r-r-r-eally."

A tear sprung up in Naruto's eye as she seemed to have great difficulty with the letter 'r' and he lead her away to see Sakura without a word and in a manner that allowed no reticence.

There was silence for a long moment before Neji spoke, "So really this test is a poorly disguised attempt to steal secrets from members of bloodlines in other villages, I bet they simply couldn't resist an opportunity to have a Hyuuga fail, and of course the information they would gain regarding the Byakugan as a 'side effect' would possibly be the biggest gain made by hidden mist over the course of this event."

The remaining three awake gennin all nodded slightly and noted Neji's usual cynicism was very much in force, sure what he said was true but to state such in that manner …

Kiba seemed bothered by something, "But then why did they simply allow your team to pass? If Hinata was such a good opportunity then surely you could reveal just as much."

"True but I am not Hyuuga Neji anymore. I lost my place in the clan when my Byakugan was destroyed, Belgarion recommended the name Mibu so as far as the examiners, or any official document after my," here Neji almost bit off his tongue in an effort to stop the word 'death' escaping his lips, "expulsion from the Hyyuga for that matter, I am called Mibu Neji."

Shino raised an eyebrow in Belgarion's direction and spoke with a voice that hinted only the mildest interest, "Mibu?"

For his part Belgarion merely shrugged and replied, "I had a friend once called Mibu Kyoshiro, well actually he wasn't really a friend but he shared a body with someone who was, the one who was my friend didn't have a family name," here Belgarion faded off to a sort of sniggering mutter, "… unless you count 'Demon eyes'"

The tone of his voice stopped that line of conversation like a truck parked on a rail crossing and after a moment Kiba felt the need to keep the conversation happening and spoke up. Soon all were engaged in light banter ranging form speculation about the next section of the exam to cheerful anecdotes about Kiba trying to help Akamaru win the heart of that cute poodle across the road and the time Belgarion spent just under a week trying to find his way out of the city of Carmina Gadelica.

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Lee slept like a log on the middle bunk, Gai was out meeting with the other jounin instructors whose students had passed, Belgarion sat on the lower bunk, Neji sat in the lotus position on the floor, they were discussing magical theory. 

"… and so the traditional table of elements is more than a little flawed, theory states that Lee's earth chakra should have protected him from the raiton jutsu realy well, tell me why it didn't."

Neji's brow furrowed, "You know, I've had the 'elemental forces' lecture already …"

"And? Magic is a mental skill, and as such it will benefit from the enhancement and application of your other mental skills, this isn't a trick question it is an application of logic and your ability to consider outside variables. Now tell me why Lee's defence failed."

Taking a breath to collect his thoughts Neji began, "When elemental chakra is ejected from the body as elemental chakra, especially by the method Lee has developed, it has the properties of that element in it's purest form. The element we call 'earth' is not truly a pure substance and in the form that best represents the essence of the thoughts attached to it. Thus the chakra Lee emitted possessed the properties of a homogeneous mixture of soil, semi-conductive, silicates minerals and metals both pure and as ores, which is to say it was extremely conductive rather than the near non-conductance state of normal soil that he hoped to replicate."

Belgarion nodded in satisfaction, "Good, what should he have done?"

"He should have used water or air, in their purest state water is extremely resistant to electron flow and air is primarily nitrogen – one of the least reactive elements on the planet in the gas phase."

Another nod, "Why was Lee able to stand afterward?"

"Partially because of the not quite perfect manner of his technique meant his chakra did not completely possess the properties it should have and instead of drawing triple the amount of energy directed at those around him he only drew arround double. The other reason for his success was a little harder for me to spot, but it seems to be that his use of the lotus and is skill with manipulating the celestial gates has taught him how to resist damage to his body by self inflicted muscle strain, the sort lightning forces you to inflict upon yourself, for a limited time he even seems able to ignore it completely. As a side note, I believe he may be able to use endurance training against raiton jutsu to increase the time he can remain active with open gates."

"Good, now why did I ask you about this?"

Neji's brow creased, he had had this conversation many times and always he had failed here. The format was the same as many lessons Belgarion had taught, Neji was asked one question after another for as long as he was able to answer correctly, when he answered incorrectly Belgarion would pause and change the subject of conversation and bring the line of questioning back up at a later date, making Neji start the questions from scratch. He had already failed the question a few times, the formula for this lesson went – Question about an earlier failure they had witnessed, why was it a failure, what should have been done, why was the one who made the mistake able to recover and then this question.

The one that always balked Neji, 'why am I asking you these questions?', so far Neji had tried 'as a test', 'to force me to understand a concept' and 'to make me think in a certain way'. All three times Belgarion had shaken his head and moved the lecture to a different topic, Neji desperately racked his brain for the right answer. He knew the theory of course, these were things Neji had to learn himself, he couldn't be taught, all Belgarion could to was tell him the problems to consider and when he finaly discovered the answer for himself the correct answer would come to him. Today he decided he was going to answer correctly and finally discover the next question.

Neji smiled as he snatched at a tid bit from earlier in the conversation, "… an application of logic and your ability to consider outside variables."

Then his smile faded into frustration as Belgarion spoke, "Your use of language improves, your conjecture regarding the method to increase Lee's resistance to damage caused by using the gates is quite a sound theory and you should tell him about it sometime in order to enhance the power of your team as a whole."

Neji's face fell, Belgarion only commented on his improvement during the interchange between lessons, he had just failed to answer the question correctly. Now there would be some new line of inquisition.

"Why do human minds have a limit? Why can we only imagine so much? Why are there concepts we cannot conceive?"

Neji cursed silently, he hadn't even been beyond the first question of this lesson and it had taken him two goes to even realise the three sentences were one question.

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Word of God (hehe I fully stole that idea from dragon man's 'roar of the dragon' it basically means A/N)**: bad poetry warning.**

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Sakura groaned softly, healing Hinata to Naruto's satisfaction had taken a lot of chakra, still it had made her happy to see two people developing a love for one another. 

That thought had given rise to thoughts about a certain Aburame, Pouring over her actions of the last month Sakura wondered if she was felling love. It was very different to what she had felt for Sasuke, but that didn't really tell her anything, it could have meant her feelings for Shino were nothing at all like the true love she sought or it could reveal her love for Sasuke as nothing but a child's crush and her feelings for the Aburame as beyond the deepest affection.

As she read the piece of paper he had handed her during his checkup she secretly hoped it would prove to be the second possibility.

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Were it that I could express my love, 

_With kiss or caress,_

_Express my love for all that makes you you,_

_Fulfilment would be mine._

_But how can one kiss a thought?_

_Caress an attitude?_

_Touch a mind?_

_Can you?_

_At best I can observe._

_So I will observe._

_I will interact at every opportunity._

_For the fulfilment my love grants me._

_I can not love each component enough,_

_To justify my love's return._

_So I will love you all at once,_

_And hope that brings to you the joy it brings me._

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Yes, Sakura decided, it would be nice if the second possibility was the one creeping up on the facts of her life as she thought of the only person she knew more expressive than Naruto. 

No one else found him as expressive as she did, if you asked his team mates they would describe him as completely non-communicative on every subject. They just didn't know how to talk to him like she did.

_Shino_.

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I should stop for a while and take the time to think of some new ones

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Well, that's biscuits for this chappie. 

Sorry i did that for the first test but i couldnt realy think of something that hadnt been done before, then i made Belgarions team pass so easily because, quite frankly, i realy dont wanna describe torture.

I find myself with a week off in the middle of the school holidays. Yay for me being on holiday with a million screaming children and teenagers with the maturity of … teenagers. Still its all good, it turns out toast-nii's gf cant afford to come with us to qld, isn't that sad? … well I spose it is for her. I realy should be nicer about this but … im not going to, ive got my nii to myself for a week. Wiew.

We leave tomorrow and get there the day after. 12hours on a train, well not like I haven't spent longer than that in the same room as him anyway, we should be fine.

This chappie's poetry comes from … me! It came to me in the middle of the meditation period during Wednesday night's training and I wrote it out when I was sposed to be doing prework the next day, its about as romantic as I get. What do you think?

**Night owl: **i plant to, thanks for the support

**Dragon man:** yeah kurenai can be like that. sorry to say that Zabusa and Haku seem to have been gone long enough that the villagers arent realing talking about them at all anymore but on the subject of the hoshigaki clan ...

**Rurikochan:** nice to have you on board

**Darklotus:** cool.


	10. Strugle and scars on the lake

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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This is the end of the chapter

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Neji struggled. He struggled for understanding, he focussed as though he could force comprehension to dawn by sheer force of will. It wasn't working but he had taxed his rational thought too far in one session and this was the only recourse left to him. _'Why am I asking these questions?', damn it how am I supposed to know!_

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"Why am I asking you these questions?" Belgarion watched the mental strain and frustration wash across the young gennin's face, Neji seemed to be truly troubled by his inability to answer.

The silence seemed to be crushing him and for a moment Belgarion almost decided to break off the questions for some other training that day when Neji's head snapped up and his chakra began to regain focus.

"To force my mind to accept a truth."

Belgarion was silent for several seconds as he compared this answer to the one he sought, truly it was well within the acceptable limits for the question, but it approached the truth form a different direction than Belgarion was able to understand. Not necessarily the wrong direction simply one that approached the truth from an angle not visible from the path Belgarion had taken. Belgarion began to compose the list of Neji's improvements over the course of the night and compared the answer with the questions that could follow. Then Belgarion noticed one of the possible follow up questions seemed almost tailor made for this answer. Oh well, the areas of improvement could be put off for one more question.

"What is the truth your mind requires force to accept?"

Neji seemed to nearly die where he stood, he had answered the question correctly. Then his expression darkened and turned in on itself in thought, it was nearly ten minutes before he replied, "The truth of itself."

Neji groaned as Belgarion complimented his improvement in the areas if technical terminology, theology and awareness of self.

"Why do human minds have a limit? Why can we only imagine so much? Why are there concepts we cannot conceive?"

"Hey, hate to interrupt the philosophy lesson, but it's your watch Neji-san."

Neji stiffened, an incorrect change of the watch was the signal they were being watched and Lee's watch didn't end for another two hours. As the only one able to follow the conversation at a distance and with his back turned Neji had agreed to be the one sent away from the group to 'watch' for enemies.

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"_We don't plan to allow a set of preliminary matches to become necessary like they were in the last exam in Konoha." The second examiner's face was without emotion._

_Naruto's face curled into a snarl but relaxed as Tenten's hand rested on his shoulder, she whispered something in his ear and he relaxed completely._

"_The model for the second test used in Konoha was a very good one and those of you who attended that exam will draw similarities between that and this, we have however modified it so that two thirds will be guaranteed to fail unlike the one half assured by that method, hence no preliminary matches._

"_Unlike that test however this exam will test your intelligence gathering and assassination skills. Each team will be issued three of these," between the examiners fingers rested a small ovoid, "one for each member, they will be inserted into the loose skin at the base of the neck and removed either when you are defeated or pass the exam. The will react when exposed to a gust of chakra by producing a genjutsu image of a symbol, either scissors, paper or rock. Each team will be given one of each symbol and for anyone to pass they must hold all three. You can either fight your own team to take their capsules or you can team up and take down two other teams to pass. If you wish you can even take multiple teams and form a gang, the exam from now on is to be taken individually anyway. Any alliances are your own decision. I do advise you avoid going it alone however, you will have to survive two whole days out on the lake before we let you come ashore to hand over your spoils and pass, you may even be out there a week trying to get the items needed to pass before we declare this stage closed."_

_Lee shivered, the lake was massive with only around forty islets large enough for a person to rest on, this exercise would also require immense chakra control and nearly flawless execution of the water walking technique._

"_Now for the last part, the part about intelligence gathering and assassination skills, if you kill or render unconscious someone whose symbol is the same as or superior to your own you will immediately fail the test. For example, if I had a capsule marked scissors and I was facing an opponent who also had scissors, neither of us could move against the other, if my opponent bore rock, I could defend myself but not knock him out or kill him, my best bet would be to flee. Hence this exam tests your intelligence gathering skills, it is a VERY bad idea to take on an opponent with an unknown capsule. Once you gain your second capsule, paper in the case of the example, you would then be allowed to incapacitate persons carrying either paper or rock (as you started with scissors which beats paper and now also have paper which beats rock.) but you can also now be targeted by people carrying scissors. Once you have all three you can fight as you please and you are fair game to anyone at all. Finally anyone caught removing a capsule from their opponent that matches one in their possession will be failed immediately. This means people with all three capsules can fight, knock out and kill whomever they chose but they can no longer take their capsules._

"_That's it, anyone within one hundred metres of the shore before the end of day two will be knocked out and removed from the exam and anyone who hasn't got three capsules and reported to the guards onshore after seven days will be failed. We don't really expect the exam to run that long though." Here the examiner sniggered, the first open emotion displayed during the whole speech._

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Neji 'watched' as Lee carved a map of the area into the soil with his finger. It really was a work of art, while the talked loudly enough that nins observing them would be able to tell they were discussing plans for tomorrow's scouting but not loudly enough tho hint that they had detected the watching presence. 

"We can probably scout two islands each tomorrow if we split up …"

_Two each, six 'islands' that meant two teams were watching their position, probably working together._

"… here on this island the mist really is thick, but out on this lake it's even thicker."

_Thicker mist was code for cloud, two teams of cloud nins._ Neji shifted his chakra to examine Lee's map of the 'islands' they were supposedly scouting tomorrow, _Six cloud nins evenly spaced around their camp, definitely cooperating to take down some leaves._

Next Neji's chakra swept the area, he sat perfectly still, to all outward appearances he was intently observing an array of scrolls connected to the fearsome collection of sentry tags surrounding the campsite. As he briefly brushed the backs of the surrounding shinobi's necks he took note of the shape of the chakra creating the genjutsu markings for their 'signs'. When he was done it took only a puff of chakra to dispel another genjutsu and make a scroll 'teleport' into his lap. Picking it up he turned and walked back to where Lee and Belgarion sat.

"A message, from Naruto's group." Neji sat and pretended to read from the blank scroll, "Hmmm, he says those waterfall teams Lee was interested in have split up, one is in this direction, and the other is over this way," Neji looked carefully at the map before indicating the directions of two of the surrounding nins, Lee's mark was scissors hence 'the teams Lee was interested in' must represent those nins with paper, he just had to hope the other two would pick up on his meaning, next he faced Belgarion, "that sound team you had a run in with chose to fight among themselves, the leader killed one of his team mates for a rock mark around here somewhere but the other escaped in this direction, he's quite nearby." Belgarion's mark was paper so that indicated rock but Neji felt the need to mention it vocally just in case one of his team didn't get it, "In this direction we're surrounded by mist, over here too, not surprising since there's so many of them in this exam." There, if they got the rest then the only mark left was scissors.

Neji looked up to Belgarion for a plan, he was not disappointed, "Ok then, tomorrow Lee will go north then east to look for targets on these two islands, Neji will go south then east to these two islands and I will go west to this island then double back to meet you both here." The markings on the 'map' showed Lee running to one side of the circle to a shinobi with paper mark then around the outside to one with rock, Neji was to run to the other side of the circle to a nin with scissors and around toward Lee, picking up a paper on the way, the only problem Neji had with the plan was that it called for Belgarion to take a rock on one side of the circle then somehow get all the way to the other side of the formation to take the scissors stationed between Lee and Neji's second targets.

Neji expressed his doubts, "Can you cover that much distance in a day? I mean in time to do your share of setting up camp."

Belgarion smiled at the image, Neji was getting inventive, "I can always use my travelling jutsu if I'm behind"

Neji nodded.

Just before the other two began to move toward their designated targets Belgarion spoke up one last time, "Remember, if we encounter clouds and the sound we have special orders from Gai-sensei."

With a grim nod the three parted ways and dashed at their targets. Gai's orders had been that should any opportunity arise at any point in the exam they were expected to take it. Any opportunity to kill a sound or cloud gennin.

The three seemed to flicker out of existence as they hit their top speeds.

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A smile lit the cloud gennin's face, the signal had finally been passed, they were about to launch a joint assault against the powerful leaf team. Upon their entry into the first exam room the jounin instructors from cloud had placed a bounty on the two teams that had passed the first exam bypassing the torture section. It was a good bounty, even sharing with another team it was worth any three D-rank missions you'd care to name. 

The air began to charge as his lightning jutsu neared completion, then it was done. As one the six gennin began to charge, a variety of gen-, nin- and taijutsu at the ready.

Suddenly the targets began to charge away from him. Suddenly their speed passed his eyes ability to follow. Suddenly the ambush didn't seem to be going so well.

There were several meaty thuds off to his right, the sound of someone dying from severe organ damage to his left and single gurgling breath up ahead. Only two others made it to the clearing where the targets had camped, shocking since this island couldn't be more than a stone's throw across, that wasn't much time for the leaves to take out three of his comrades.

What had started as a clearly advantageous strategy, with six shinobi surrounding and out manoeuvring three ninjas of a similar level, had suddenly become one that called for a desperate defence, with three nins surviving as the tattered remains of two squads facing an equal number of probably superior warriors. Fortunately the cloud nin was cunning and had deliberately chosen this jutsu for its ability to change from an offensive strike to a powerful defence instantly. He formed a single seal and shouted.

"RAI HEKI HOUJIN!"

A thick and rapidly flowing wall of electrical potential surrounded the three nins as the second seemed to have the same idea and quickly raised a barrier of simple genjutsu, designed to create confusion for several seconds in the minds of anyone trying to cross it, as one they each made the hand signal for 'retreat and regroup' and the third survivor began a simple teleportation jutsu to give them a few hundred metre head start in their escape.

Then a dark figure appeared before them, it spoke directly to him, "My, my a very nice barrier skill you possess." Then his eyes widened and he fell to the ground, some sort of hooked or serrated combat dagger embedded in his abdomen.

As his barrier dropped he watched with some detachment as another figure flickered into existence and punched the nin creating the teleportation jutsu in the throat so hard even the bones of his neck seemed to collapse, he fell to the ground, his jutsu incomplete on his lips. The final target approached and walked calmly through the genjutsu, he struck the creator of the confusion wall in the chest, she fell to the ground as though boneless.

He noticed that both of his fellow survivors were female, he hadn't noticed earlier in the heat of battle and he wondered why he noticed now, it wasn't like it mattered anymore, he was already becoming giddy from blood loss.

His last memory was of the one who had stabbed him reaching for another knife and turning him over to get at the capsule in his neck.

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Shino panted, it was very hard for him to treat someone else's wounds, his bugs made treating his own wounds simple, but his familiarity with that method made it near impossible to treat someone who didn't have a hive of their own. Only the dozen or so bugs Sakura had filled with healing chakra made it possible for him to attempt this at all. She had said it would be enough to close a straight and unpoisoned cut of about ten centimetres in length and bone deep. 

Given that guideline and hoping the mist nins hadn't used poison he should be able to close the wound on Hinata's neck enough that she would only need a quick field dressing to get back on her feet.

Shino tensed as footsteps passed their location, this was the third time. Twice already the mist nins had missed their hiding place simply because they expected his team to hide on an island or rocky outcrop somewhere. The team remained undetected because they were in the worst conceivable hiding place, a large patch of open water with a sand bar high enough to support Kiba's unconscious form while the bug master treated the Hyuuga heiress. The mist nins knew how to search for fugitives on a lake, you scouted any rocks and islets carefully, don't let open water delay you too badly. Except today the mist was thick, Hinata had added to it with her Kirigakure, the mist nins had added to it the same way, before they realised their opponents had come prepared to fight under those conditions.

Now the fog was so dense you could not spot a crouching shape at two metres and it would take at least an hour for the mist to burn off enough to even see at that range.

The footsteps began to fade into the distance, now he had evaded them three times.

Looking down, the bug master noticed that he had used up all of the healing chakra. He pulled a needle from his supply pouch and began to draw thread through it's eye. His bugs had created the thread, it would be easily tough enough to seal the rest of the wound until the test's end. It was bio-degradable too.

Then the Aburame sighed, an unusual action certainly, there were only three gennin he had ever encountered that he would truly hate to have angry at him. Truly pissed off that is. Now number three was likely to try and kill him once the test was over. Looking at his handy work once more Shino shuddered, he hadn't done that great a job, Hinata would very likely have a scar, Naruto was going to be pissed.

Looking at his own shoulder and seeing the unmistakeable flash of white bone Shino groaned. There was no way his bugs could close that completely before the exam ended. It looked like number one on the list was going to join Naruto in pissed-ville, Sakura had been quite angry the last time he had been cut during training but with a wound like this she would be truly unhappy with him. Giddily he wondered if he should irritate Belgarion to complete the set.

It slowly dawned that he was not thinking like he normally would, what was wrong? Blood loss? No the bugs had stopped the flow quite some time ago. _Of course! I forgot to tell them to put my healing on hold, they've been trying to close that wound this whole time. I'm just getting a bit woozy from chakra depl…_

There was a splash and a thud as Shino's head fell upon Kiba's chest. Akamaru whined, sure everyone's head was above water now but only barely, it would only take a small ripple in the lake nearby to cover Kiba's and Hinata's faces and only a slightly larger one to drown Shino as well.

Shino began to snore.

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In cloud they had an odd tradition. In the old days, before the coming of the first raikage, the feudal lords of the lightning country had struck a deal with the nomads of the plains that had lead to the formation of the first of the ninja clans of the youngest of the great shinobi nations. The deal was so profitable to both sides that the very fist raikage had decided to keep it in force at the creation of the hidden village of cloud. 

The deal stated that anyone who brought to the palace in the capital of lightning thirty hitai-ate taken from the corpses of foreign nins who had entered their borders with hostile intent was entitled to one cow and one bull. The fortunes of many of the lightning's great cattle raising families had sprung from a band of fighters routing strangers from their lands.

In time the bounty had been extended to cover nins making a kill against villages the cloud was at war with, cold war or otherwise. Right now that list included the leaf, the waterfall and the sound.

Akage Ryo had taken eighteen of the small steel plates over the course of the four years since he had become a gennin, seven leaf gennin, eight waterfall and two sound, he had even taken one sand a few years ago before peace was declared. His family really needed the cattle.

Looking at the five in his hand now he sighed in confusion, the two from his fallen team mates he would of course give to his jounin instructor for proper service when they returned to cloud but what should he do with the three mist? Should he keep them against the possibility of war being declared against water?

Eventually he decided that the penalty for being caught submitting hitai-ate taken outside of wartime outweighed the possible benefits, so he would keep them and try to win favour with the examiners by giving them to village officials.

Then Ryo stopped dead, right before him lay quite possibly the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life. Three Konoha hitai-ate waiting to be claimed in one go, the most he had ever claimed in one encounter. A leaf team, obviously recovering from an earlier battle, slept partially submerged on a sandbar, three easy kills and suddenly he had less than ten left to collect.

"Stop."

Ryo stopped.

"Turn around."

Ryo turned around. When finished he was confronted with an unusual visage. The shinobi he faced looked like some sort of reverse mermaid, with fish-like facial features, gills and beady eyes included, and a human body, toping it all off was a mist hitai-ate and a shock of pointy green hair.

Gesturing toward the bundle of cloth and steel in his Ryo's hand the mystery mist nin spoke once more, "Whose?"

"My two team mates' and three from the team who killed them," pausing to toss the three mist plates to the newcomer, "they were your guys."

Looking blankly at the three hitai-ate in his hand the fish man very carefully and with great ceremony threw them over his shoulder into the lake.

"Wha…? I thought they were your comrades."

"No. The name Hoshigaki no longer sits well with this village and my clan feels no love lost when our … 'comrades' fall."

Ryo mused for a moment, _Hoshigaki, Hoshigaki …_ "Ahhh, I remember, I'd say you started to become less popular around here about the time two of your legendary seven swordsmen decided to run off and play missing nin."

Ignoring him the self proclaimed Hoshigaki gestured to his other hand, "You already possess the required capsules to pass this section, allow me to take these and go in peace."

Ryo shook his head, "Sorry, but my village offers a bounty only if I personally execute them. I will kill them and take their hitai-ate, you are free to have the capsules after I'm done. Hell, I'll even say I wouldn't mind facing you in the finals rather than here."

The newcomer paused to consider for only the briefest of seconds, "Agreed"

Ryo charged a little electric chakra to his palm, enough to kill in one blow. He levelled a blow at his first target, a girl lying face up next to her two team mates, she looked kind of attractive in a smooth and unnaturally flawless way.

He unleashed his blow.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The water froze around his feet, fingers wrapped around his wrist, there was a clang from the direction of the fish face. Ryo's arm seemed to inflate to the point of exploding. He turned to look his attacker in the eyes.

What he saw confused him a moment, no eyes at all just the shiny surface of one of the Konoha hitai-ate he hunted. Were they hunting them back now? Then he realised it was that blind leaf nin he had been warned about. The figure before him spoke, seemingly to itself.

"Damn, even now that I'm not even a branch member anymore I still get stuck looking after the head family."

Ryo turned to call for aid from the mist nin only to see that he had produced a sword for somewhere and was currently locking blades with another one of those leaves the lightning had been warned of.

Ryo suddenly came to the conclusion he should have not let his attention wander as a sudden impact rendered his arm completely numb and unresponsive.

He was halfway to landing a retaliatory blow when he was once again interrupted, this time by a greenish grey blur and a yell.

A powerful blow landed on the side of his face and he seemed to float sideways for an awful long time before gathering his wits and channelling enough chakra to land on the water and make good his escape.

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"Gouriki seppu!" 

Lee's green clad leg shot out from under his grey cloak and impacted heavily with the trapped cloud nin, he flew easily out of spotting distance before a splash indicated his landing. Lee made to pursue when he felt Neji's restraining hand, he turned to ask why but stopped when Neji gestured toward the prone forms of Hinata's team.

So instead Lee began to exult in his victory, "YAHOO! You know that's the first time I've ever been able to use the gouriki seppu in combat? Gai-sensei always says it is to easy to counter and should only be used when the target is restrained and we need power more than accuracy, you know, Gai-sensei alw…"

"Shut up!" Lee shut up, "I really don't think now is the best time to blab all the secrets of your taijutsu style ok? And really when it is time could you wait until I don't have to listen please?" Neji seemed a little irritated.

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Hoshigaki Kagato was being pressured. The leaf swordsman was good, very good, and now they out numbered him too since that cloud coward had fled. With a sigh Kagato realised it would be expedient for him to flee as well, so when a mighty roundhouse blow forced him back several metres he took advantage of the gap to prep a jutsu. 

"SUITON, SUIJINHEKI!"

Right, now he had time to work on an escape plan … or not. A shout from outside of his barrier made him look up, a huge ball of fire was falling toward the opening at the top of his jutsu. In all fairness it didn't matter which direction the fireball came from, it would have pulverised his defences anyway.

He wasted no time in retreating underwater. One thing many people overlooked about the Hoshigaki clan was their bloodline, the ability to breathe underwater. It escaped many people's notice that a bloodline could be something as simple as that, it was overlooked even more now that technology had found a way to replicate the effect. But then if you went underwater for a while with a mask attached to your face your opponent would expect you to be able to stay down for a while, and correspondingly if you had no mask he wouldn't. Sometimes it helped to have your opponent underestimate you.

At first Kagato was tempted to attack form below, that idea was given up as soon as he realised a layer of ice was expanding and blocking his access to the surface, instead he settled for a hasty retreat.

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"BIVAK DON!" 

Even before it hit the surface the heat of the fireball had forced Lee's icy platform back to his feet.

That was it, a gush of steam and the mist nin had fled, remembering his orders Belgarion almost gave chase, but in the end his fellow leaves came first. As he walked back to help he heard Neji's voice.

"I know you find it easier to eject cold chakra and walk on the ice than to simple use the water walking jutsu like a normal person but unless you want to be chiselling them out on your own," here he gestured to where Kiba and Shino lay, frozen to the waterline, "I suggest you melt it long enough for me to pick them up."

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Hinata awoke, she looked around blearily, "Whstfgle?" 

"Oh, yer up?"

"mmm, what happened?" the Hyuuga's voice was even quieter than normal, and she clutched at her head with one hand while running the other along the line of stitches at the back of her neck.

"Well, after the fight Shino used up all his chakra patching you up and passed out." Here Kiba's voice was interrupted by a whine, rolling his eyes he continued, "Akamaru stood watch, then he sensed two hostiles coming toward us. So he went and found the nearest leaf team, Neji's, to help out." Here there was another growl and Kiba burst out laughing, "h-h-he s-says that he could have taken one of them but he needed help for two at once." The dog boy wiped a tear from his eye and patted his long time companion on the head.

"They left ages ago to check on the other leaf teams, apparently they've already got enough capsules to pass tomorrow when they start allowing people ashore. But Belgarion made Lee stay behind and catch us some fish, you just missed him." Kiba finished the story with a big grin and raised his hand to show a half eaten bream and the remains of a mullet with all the hallmarks of having been eaten by Akamaru, he grinned and pointed to a pair of steaming parcels, "Those two are for you and Shino."

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And this is the beginning

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Well how was that? Exciting? I hope so. Writing it has been all ive done since I got back from my little trip with toast-nii, now I can get down to some serious anime watching for the last day before I have to go back to work. Yay! 

As a side note, Shino's top three gennin not to have pissed off at you list goes Sakura, Belgarion, Naruto, in that order. Sakura because, well guess really, and Naruto and Belgarion ever since their little sparing session in konoha.

And finaly bonus points to everyone who can guess where I got Belgarion's jutsu from and which akatsuki member's nephew appeared this chappie.

argh! my pc died last night, i couldnt even format since setup froze when i tried to boot from cd.(not something i actualy thought possible) fortunately toast-nii is 1337 and stuff because he was able to salvage my hdd intact.

and Dragon man ... just watch the mist get sneakier


	11. Gods and monsters

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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I know what happens in this chapter and you don't :P

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Tenten and Ino spoke in hushed tones, they were concerned about Naruto. Ever since he had heard from Belgarion that Hinata had been injured when a team of mist nins had slashed the back of her neck to take her capsule he had been on edge, irritated and snappish. Then things had gotten worse, one of the pair of mist gennin they were observing had mentioned his anger at 'that bug bastard' who had managed to kill one of his team mates but missed the chance to take his capsule when the body had sunk in the lake before he could get to it. The situation had continued to go downhill when the other replied that 'at least we were able to take one back from the girl'. 

In Tenten's mind's eye she saw Naruto leap forward and lash into the left gennin's back with a clawed hand. She shuddered, that was her reading of his instincts at play.

Ino saw something else, a mind holding back a great mindless wave with it's greatest imaginable effort.

Up and down the link the two had formed to balance their 'sights' against one another flowed a stream of images all leading to one conclusion, if something drastic didn't happen to cool the boy off then Naruto was going to be unable to hold back his instinct for battle some time in the next ten seconds.

Up the link to Tenten's mind came an important piece of information, she would have to take the one on the right straight away since if Naruto killed or disabled that one the capsule he carried would mean the blonde was disqualified from the test. Unfortunately he held scissors … so did Naruto, Ino held the sign of paper and would also be failed if she took him out, only Tenten's rock was allowed to fight him. The other was less of a problem since he held both rock and paper.

Suddenly Naruto's hands thrust out sideways, one in front of each girl and each holding a total of six swirling chakra masses. The thoughts flowed out of his mind and into Ino's then up the link to Tenten. _Quickly take these, I can't hold the blood lust back much longer._

Both nodded and reached forward, by the time Tenten's hands had reached Naruto's the five smaller rasengan had become kunai while the fully sized one had shifted shape to become a kama, one of the battle sickles favoured by stone weapon specialists and the leaf's best female gennin rookie of the year before last, all gripped by the point with handles offered for easy grip. The brunette surrounded her hand with chakra and gripped the kama in her right hand and the kunai by one finger through each loop on her left. As the leafs number one female rookie of the last year reached for the hilt of the katana pointed in her direction she leant forward to whisper in her blonde team mate's ear.

"If you can keep enough focus to only attack the one on the left you might not get disqualified."

Naruto barely had enough grasp on himself to nod understanding before the red hot rage of the nine tails demon fox broke the surface and once more began to win the struggle to send it's vessel into a killing rage.

Both kunoichi glanced at each other, noting how mightily Naruto resisted a transformation he had simply dived into every other time they had seen it, he was still nearly in control. But in then end both knew he would give in to the urge to avenge the quiet Hyuuga, even the chakra that made up the weapons he had given them already had thick bands of red flowing amongst the blue.

Then Naruto's struggle ended, the gennin on the left had complained about a shoulder injury.

A shoulder injury inflicted by 'that white eyed bitch'.

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The mist nin wandered along, he made idle conversation with his team mate. Nothing important really, just random thoughts and ponderings. Conversation turned to the leaf team they had tangled with and the gains and losses they had made in that encounter. Should they go back? The dog boy was likely still out of fighting condition and the girl wasn't able to fight anyone by the rules of the test until one of her team mates gave her a capsule. But there was the bug user, he truly terrified them. 

Then the mist nins nearly fell to their knees under the wave of chakra that exploded from the island to their right, so much chakra it rippled their clothes like a breeze, so much chakra they could see it turning the air a terrible red colour.

A figure approached from the island at a terrifying speed, faster than the rain of kunai that followed it. It was positively glowing with enraged power, a red glow of a powerful chakra.

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All across the lake gennin froze in place as a wave of rage struck them, almost as potent as the killing intent they had felt from one of the grey cloaked gennin during the first test but at a much greater distance. 

As the wave passed him the last sound gennin still surviving in the test paused at just the wrong time and was pierced through the heart by a kunai that was only really meant to distract him. His killer remained self possessed enough to make sure he had a firm grip on the pilfered hitai-ate before succumbing to the urge to empty his stomach.

To the east a mist nin cursed and dived under the lake's surface to reclaim the capsule he had just dropped in shock.

In the south Hinata's head snapped up and faced directly toward the epicentre of the wave, _Naruto-kun._

Next to her Shino wondered if Naruto had just found out he had been unable to mend Hinata's wound properly and was even now charging forth to punish him for his short comings.

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Ino cursed, even though she had started running nearly a quarter of a second before Naruto the other blonde had already reached his target while she was barely half way to her own. It seemed that the mist nin found her speed impressive however as he nearly stumbled when she popped into his perception a mere two metres outside the striking distance of her katana. 

He forgot her almost instantly when he was forced to dodge a hail of summoned steel. Ino used that opportunity, and her absolute trust of Tenten's accuracy and ability to anticipate her movements, to step right into the oncoming hail and place her right hand just inside of his right knee and tap his ankle inward with her foot. As he overbalanced she rotated on her axis to slam her shoulder into the back of his other knee, lifting off the ground and letting him drop toward the rising blade of the katana in her left hand.

With truly amazing agility he twisted and shifted and used a one handed grip on the water's surface to forcibly yank himself out of the sword's path. This was however not unexpected and he was horrified to find Tenten directly above him, filling the space he was about to occupy with a hail of steel and chakra weaponry.

"SUITON SUIJINHEKI!"

The mist gennin cursed as his water wall stopped all the normal weapons but was only able to divert the chakra kunai to strike his outer limbs.

Ino also cursed, the water wall allowed the enemy to regain his wits and operate on thought rather than instinct, that meant it was now her turn to direct the offensive, but since she couldn't incapacitate the enemy she had to both lead the assault and create an opportunity for Tenten to land the decisive blow. That made the battle around seven times more complicated.

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Naruto grinned with feral glee, the nine tails nearly danced within the confines of it's cage at the sight of the carnage lain before it. Already much of the offending nin's internal structure was open for viewing, floating around on the surface of the lake. 

A part of Naruto's mind that remained Naruto was sickened and retching at the sight, another part recalled that the exam was what was important now and snatched up the capsule that was just dropping bellow arm's reach from the water's surface. Then the rage fled, Naruto stood wide eyed and shaking at the act he had just committed. Certainly Jiraiya had forced him to accept the truth of a shinobi's life by taking a few assassination missions over the past two months but never before had Naruto seen such a brutally mutilated corpse, let alone had to face it knowing it was his hand that had done this to something that had once been a human being.

Naruto began to cry, a single long shuddering breath followed by a collapse to his knees and an unstoppable torrent of racking sobs.

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Ino watched in horror, Tenten tripped, Tenten fell, the mist nin turned to take advantage of her weakness and decrease the number of opponents and hopefully make it possible to escape this battle before that insanely powerfully kid in orange joined in. 

Lacing the fingers of his functional hand around the fingers of the hand that hung limp at his side he forced them into the shape of the rat seal. Water leapt to his whim and formed a blade in his good hand as it let go of the other. He raised the sword over his head and began a downward stroke.

Fear rushed up the link between the two girls as Tenten froze in terror, Ino began a dash she knew would never cover the distance in time. Mind working desperately to find a way to turn the situation in her favour Ino's arm pulled back. Without and kunai left in her pouch there was only one way she could stop that blow from falling, her arm ached as the blood was forced to accumulate in her hand by the speed of her throw and her breath stuck painfully in her throat as the mass left her hand and sailed toward the target.

Tenten closed her eyes, no longer able to make sense of the messages coming down her link from Ino nor the instinctive urges that rolled off the blonde in waves, death lay one hand on her shoulder.

Then the girl with the brown buns gasped in shock as cold water splashed all over her face, she looked up into the eyes of her would be killer and saw shock. He stared downward, not at his hand where he had lost control of his water blade and done little more than wet his opponent but at his chest where a large hole now marked the passage of a katana made entirely of chakra.

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With a low whistle the chuunin let both his presence and the fact he was quite impressed be known. He wore a mist hitai-ate about his left forearm, in the manner of a bracer, bandages covered his leg and he balanced on a crutch. He turned to face Naruto and his eyes widened at what he saw, a boy in a bright orange suit crying his eyes out in a pool of his enemy's organs. 

Again the low whistle of amazement, a quick puff of chakra told him that this boy held one of each symbol,_ well at least _he_ got the right target_.

Turning to Ino he finally spoke, "I'm sorry ma'am but the chakra signal from your capsule indicates you have killed someone with the wrong mark, I am afraid you are disqualified from this exam. However, since I'm such a nice guy I will let you pass on your capsule to a team mate before I teleport you back to shore."

Ino just nodded numbly and raised a kunai to the back of her neck. She threw the capsule to Tenten. Then she and the chuunin examiner were gone.

Tenten shuddered as, rather than dying off, Naruto's charka surge seemed to grow with each sob.

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Belgarion had been checking in with the examiners when the blast of chakra had reached him, Neji and Lee had both jumped slightly but almost instantly all three had recognised the chakra and returned to business. After all the surge had contained a large portion of anger and absolutely no fear, that indicated that rather than battling for his life Naruto was simply enraged enough to cause some unfortunate a lot of damage. They turned back to their check in procedure. 

Nearby stood the two nins they had fought to save Hinata's team, apparently the two nins had found themselves travelling together again with neither having a pressing reason to attack the other. They seemed much more worried about the wave of chakra than the leaf nins.

Then a chuunin examiner appeared alongside a very familiar blonde kunoichi, they didn't spot the interested looks from the other gennin present since they had appeared facing an official desk and the chuunin had leapt in to some important discussion with the man manning the desk.

Ino jerked as Lee's hand came to rest on her shoulder, "Hey Ino, what happened?"

The poor girl seemed slightly numb as she slowly turned and answered in a shaky voice too close to silent, "I-I um … kinda killed a nin with the wrong mark."

The be-crutched chuunin turned and with an impressed grin on his face, began to give a rather colourful description of the devastation he had witnessed when he had been sent to retrieve her. The man seemed to possess no notion of tact, he simply did not notice the poor girl begin to shudder violently as he spoke.

Taking her by the hand and firmly announcing his intention to escort her from the lake shore to the leaf dormitory to see Sakura Neji led the rescue effort, aided by Lee, propping the distraught blonde between them they began to retreat while Belgarion distracted the chuunin with a similarly detailed story from his past.

The team made good their escape, bearing their comrade back to home base.

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Tenten was worried, she could no longer sense Naruto's instincts. The only way that could be was if he had somehow shut them off and begun to operate by mental focus alone. That thought worried her even more, the heart beat and the drawing of breath were handled by the instinctive part of the brain, to be so invisible to her Naruto must have even taken direct control of all his bodily functions. The only others she had encountered able to do that were Belgarion, Shino and the jounin Kakashi. 

But what really worried her was the fact that since killing that mist nin Naruto had simply become a shell, walking as though in a trance but without any instinct at all, as though all of his mind power was taken up by maintaining body function and subduing the raging instinct that had taken control for that one battle.

As it was the boy simply plodded along, the same size stride no matter the terrain before him. She had had to catch him when he stumbled several times now. She had also had to correct his path a few times so that he kept following the examiner before them.

They had come ashore on the far side of the lake and one of the chuunin guarding the shore had offered to walk them around to the checking desk, they were nearly half way and Naruto still showed no emotion and never altered his step.

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"In the wake of the sound's attack on Konoha this exam will be very important," the Mizukage's speech about the true meaning of the exam was winding to a close, "many lords will be interested who would normally not travel as far as hidden mist for an exam, this exam will be a telling indicator of the distribution of power now that Konoha has been dealt such a blow. And since this is the first time since the beginning of joint chuunin testing that more than half the finalists have been from villages other than the host village, for Konoha to so dominate the final round of Kiri's exam, I expect quite a show a month from now." 

The examiner nodded and stepped forward smoothly as the Mizukage fell back in place amongst the officials, "the final matches will not be random draw as they were in Konoha, in an effort to compensate for the over-saturation of Leaves amongst the final twelve we will allow you to make a suggestion as to who you would like to face and the tournament will be structured around those suggestions.

"You will each step forward and state your name, you specialty and your village in turn, you will then each write the name of the nin you would most like to face on this slip of paper, we will work the match up from that over the next few days. Begin."

Belgarion shrugged, "Belgarion of Riva, Ninjutsu, Konohagakure no sato."

With sighs the other Konoha nins began to follow suit, "Mibu Neji, Taijutsu, Konohagakure no sato."

"Konoha's beautiful green beast, Rock Lee, Taijutsu."

A dazed voice floated up from around the floor, "Uzumaki Naruto, Konohagakure no sato," here the voice trailed off, Naruto had no idea what he specialised in, then the first smile in the days since the test graced his face, "dead last." He even got a few chuckles from the people who knew him.

"Herikawa Tenten, weapons, Konohagakure no sato."

"Tsurugi Ayame, bloodline skills, Konohagakure no sato." The tall girl drew a few glances and some interest.

"Aburame Shino," Shino also paused to consider what classification his bugs came under, "tools? Konohagakure no sato."

Next the two cloud nins stood.

"Akage Ryo," the boy stood barely over Naruto's height despite the fact that he was obviously older than any gennin present save Belgarion, he wore his cloud hitai ate about his waist as a belt, from it hung a large bundle with steel plates sticking out the top, "Taijutsu, Kumogakure no sato."

"Seikitou Hyouzo, Taijutsu, Kumogakure no sato." The other nin from hidden cloud was truly unremarkable, already she wore the long sleeved shirt and long pants commonly adopted by cloud nins after they received their chuunin vests, indeed it would only take the addition of a grey flak jacket to transform her into 'generic cloud chuunin no.2334' or something like that anyway.

Next it was finally the mist's turn to stand, many were surprised once again to note that despite being the host village, they numbered only two finalists.

"Sanada Kumomaru," the boy who spoke carried all the paraphernalia of a medic, but he stood as much like a warrior as the swordsman next to him, "combat igakujutsumedical techniques, Kirigakure no sato."

"Hoshigaki Kagato, kenjutsusword techniques, Kirigakure no sato." The fish man's eyes were hard and he never took them from Belgarion as he spoke.

The last to stand was an oddly distorted shape, sticking out in paces bones should not be able to bend, not sticking out where it should, it seemed to be missing it's entire right shoulder, the only thing that identified it as human were the stone Hitai-ate about it's neck and the truly pissed off expression on it's face, "Kouga Toramasa," it's eyes settled upon Tsurugi Ayame with fierce glee, "bloodline skills, Ishigakure no sato."

The gennin were given a few minutes to consider their choice and place their papers in a box, then they were all dismissed with a surprising lack of ceremony.

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"Tch, these mist nins just cant let an opportunity slide can they? Three rounds and three dirty tricks. They disgust me." 

"Well most villages expect it when they send gennin to mist, konoha would never risk sending a blood-lined gennin enter the exam here if not for the circumstances of the war." Belgarion's voice was calm, conciliatory.

"Wha three? What three Neji-kun?"

Neji laughed aloud, "First was the interrogations right?" Lee nodded eagerly, "then out on the lake those capsules took blood samples, and recorded data on how we used our chakra in combat and under other circumstances. That data could have taught them how our jutsu work or how your chakra escapes your inner coils."

Lee's face became anguished, already Sasuke had taken part of his style and ran, now it was possible the newest fruit of his hard work would be taken as well.

"Relax Lee, I wiped our capsules as we handed them over, they got absolutely no data on us."

Belgarion's words eased the wounded look in Lee's eyes but he still seemed worried, "What about the others? Hinata was out there and if mist could replicate the Byakugan …"

Neji smiled, "No, Naruto's little performance prevented that, the only capsules intact were those carried by the mist and cloud pair who finished as we did."

As Lee calmed he wondered aloud, "but what was the third?"

Shino, silent until now, let out an uncharacteristic groan, "Are you a shinobi? Or just some stupid martial artist? The difference is a shinobi's ability to think."

Lee seemed taken aback, but he took the comment to heart and began to pour over the facts of the situation, then it came to him, "Of course! The exam draw, the plan to use it and an excuse to give their own nins better odds of success in so they can make back some of the prestige lost by only getting two of their own into the finals of and exam on home turf."

Neji nodded, "Yes, but they must also disadvantage us to make back what was lost by so many leaves making it where mist could not."

Tenten sighed happily, "Well since the last two sneaky acts have failed I think we should aim to make it a hat trick, no?"

Ayame nodded, "Yes, I will be pitted against the stone, based solely on our statements made during the introduction we pose the most threat to the mist so we will also be kept separate from them as long as possible. Belgarion-san will face the swordsman first, that mist nin is too eager to face you so they will want to get his impatience out of the picture quickly, also after your performance in the first test the mist will want you eliminated from the competition while their nins are still fresh. Apart from that all I can guess is that most Konoha nins will be concentrated where we will have to eliminate one another while the mist nins are separated to maintain the possibility of a mist-mist final match." The older gennin nodded to herself, congratulations on such a great theory, then wandered away from the group.

Then something dawned on Naruto, Shino hadn't been amongst the nins confirmed to have passed this morning, he had been the first in the hall when the others arrived. That lead Naruto to a conclusion, Shino had been the last to pass that section of the exam. So Naruto just had to ask, "Shino, how come Hinata and Kiba aren't here too? Didn't they pass? How come you passed and they didn't?" the questions rolled out of his mouth like a landslide in Earth country.

The stoic bug master took a moment to assemble his answer to the excitable blonde's questions, "The examiners told us there were only enough capsules left in play to pass one person, Hinata refused to take them point blank. Kiba lost at janken."

Naruto's hyperactive nature was almost rubbed raw by the way Shino only spoke the bare bones of any story but he was soon distracted by another thought, "Ooh, so Hinata is ashore now?"

"She is being treated by Shizune."

Without even asking what she was being treated for Naruto was gone.

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"ARGH! I trust you to take better care of yourself than this, really." 

Shino flinched, it was a strange motion to him, something he had not done since he was very small. He had just taken off his shirt to allow Sakura to work on his shoulder wound and, as expected, she had screamed in rage and threatened to beat hell out of him if he ever got hurt like that again. He didn't quite understand why but he found her concern comforting. As though it had become important to him that he be thought kindly of by the person of whom he thought most kindly.

At his request Sakura had agreed to only treat his other wounds and leave this one to the hive, something about it being more painful for them to have to rebuild their nest through the regrown flesh than to go another few days with an exposed shoulder bone.

The facade cracked a moment when Shino felt a warm splash of tears land along the middle of his back, slight shock was easily seen even by a non ninja had they been there to see his face. He felt her, leaning close, hands poised to hold onto him and give comfort, but afraid to risk making contact with the still tender flesh surrounding his wound. Finally he found a voice.

"It's ok, I won't break."

He shivered as a warm face pressed itself against his back, slightly wet with tears. Hands circled his waist.

"You better not."

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Elsewhere a blonde with whiskered cheeks cried into the lap of a girl with blue hair and completely white eyes. He had confessed his sins to her, he had given in to his internal beast and he had killed. He had even told her the nature of his beast. 

She had shocked him, she didn't care about the beast. She had watched him for a long time and she had seen him more truly than anyone had ever seen him and more closely than she had ever seen anyone. She had decided she liked what she saw there. She liked it enough that the nature of the beast accounted for nothing. She loved him.

When she had said that he had cried even more.

"Oh, my Naruto-kun."

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You do now though

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oohhh, quick chappie this time. My pc is still dying and I wont be able to post this for two days yet but. Im worried it might be rushed now. 

But I have written this much this rapidly because I needed an escape this week.

Ive just started re watching a bunch of anime, ive watched gunslinger girl, that has such a happy ending, despite being such a dark and angsty anime it made me feel a lot better to watch how it unfolded. The only other anime that makes me feel that good is azumanga daioh (which toast-nii hates because I can sing all of soramimi cake from memory).

And now that I finished that series I started watching Angelic layer, another 'feel good' anime but not as well worked as the other two. By the way, does anyone think the story just screams for a naruto crossover? Seriously, the first time I watched the battle between hikaru and that angel that manipulates the layer to imprison her foes(in a manner not unlike the hydro prison technique) I instantly thought _You could use that to make a kage bunshin if you had strong enough will power._ And for days ive been thinking of making an angel with no model but the basic out of the box puppet look and using the manipulation of the layer to have it turn into a different anime char each battle. I also thought of irritating my opponent by copying their little entry speech but substituting 'copy ninja kakashi' for their angel's name. then I realised that angelic layer is an anime and not a game I could actually go out and play.

Oh and _dragon man_: thanks for pointing me at that Ranma fic, it is very good.

_Tombadgerlock:_ thanks for the comment, although if you think narusaku is rare ... i also tend not to like sakura very much but i have grown to like the sakura in this fic, thats why i gave her Shino (cause i love shino, although using the term 'fangirl' would be just a little too cliche so i will leave that bit out)

_Tombadgerlock:_In this space I wrote a quite offensive response to your review, I was actually venting my irritation at toast-nii's insensitive bastard factor. Nothing personal and when I realised I was being temperamental a deleted it


	12. Training and being drunk

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

**frustration. somewhere in this chapter is something that just wont make sense, ffnet has removed all my brackets and you will have to insert some based upon your own logic some time during the story**

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(wow ... brackets)

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"Sorry Neji, you will need to train alone today, actually, since I'm hijacking Gai-sensei, Lee will probably be looking for a partner. I might be a little … indisposed tomorrow as well." 

Neji simply nodded, accepting whatever came his way with the same straight face.

Still, having to give up Belgarion's training to spend probably two days with Lee's almost painful enthusiasm …

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Kuriko watched the pair curiously, one seemed to be the hearty and hale type – the sort she would normally have to serve around five bottles of sake before the night was over – he had taken about three sips from his first cup, the other was the silent type – who she would normally pick to sit for hours brooding over a single mouthful – he was half a bottle ahead. He offered his cup for a refill. 

That was another thing, they weren't drinking out of the saucer like dishes she normally served sake in, they had requested cups. She refilled his drink.

He looked at the drink.

He drank the drink.

Silently she topped him up.

The other man's cup came to rest next to the first, she filled that as well.

They sat silently for a moment, Kuriko studied the slower drinker. He wore horrid green spandex and orange leggings, his bowl cut glistened and his teeth twinkled in the lantern light at the bar. He wore the mark of the hidden leaf on his belt. He was an incredibly large man.

The other's voice roused her from her inspection, his cup was empty.

After topping him up she studied him, he appeared around fifty with a grey great cloak and a Leaf mark riveted to his left lapel. Though he appeared shrunken with age it seemed he may have exceeded his companion's size in his youth.

He looked at the drink.

He drank the drink.

Silently she topped him up.

The man in green tried to lighten the mood, "I've never understood the illusion you use, is this your actual appearance? Or is it the eighteen year old?"

The cloaked ancient laughed bitterly, "If I showed my true age they wouldn't let me drink, they wouldn't let me out of a nursing home."

Another refill.

The bitterness in his voice put his giant companion off a little but he changed tack and kept trying to lighten the atmosphere, "Ah… I see… so why are we drinking tonight? All the way here you refused to drink because you don't like sake, and now…"

He drank and set his glass down for a refill before answering, "My wife was a dryad."

The other seemed to have trouble seeing where this was going, but hid his confusion behind the strangeness of the foreign word, "Do-rai-addo?"

"You could think of them as a … bloodline. Each is linked to a tree, as long as the tree grows healthily so do they. As long as the tree lives so will they."

The one in green nodded, taking all this at face value.

"On her hundred and eighty first birthday, a Nyissan she had disadvantaged in a trade deal sent an assassin to cut down the oak her life was tied to. She aged and died in a week."

A shaky hand rose and the cloaked stranger's voice seemed to slide from his mouth, cracked and anguished, "To the life of C'nedra the first, two hundred and seventy ninth queen of Riva." Both drained their cups in silence.

Kuriko refilled them.

They looked at the drinks.

They drank the drinks.

Silently she topped them up.

An hour and five and a half bottles later the village guards announced that the legally enforceable closing time for all bars and drinking establishments was approaching and they stumbled off to find their beds.

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Drinking sake after the point of drunkenness was bad. Once in the pleasant valleys of tipsy-land as soon as sake fumes entered the mouth the stomach tightened and the esophageus forced upward to keep any more out. 

Having a sake hangover is death. The fumes never left your mouth, your intestines wanted nothing so much as to be empty and your stomach wanted nothing so much as to be full.

Belgarion groaned. He tended to wake up like this once a year simply because even this was better than thinking about what anniversary it was.

"YAHOOO! Look Neji-san! We are in separate blocks! We might face each other IN THE FINALS! You must not lose a single match! No one but I may defeat you my eternal RIVAL! You must not lose even to Belgarion-san! NO-ONE!"

Belgarion groaned, _damn it, Lee. Why? Just take your youthful enthusiasm and GO. Come back later or something!_

"OHHHHH! My cute pupil will face his greatest challenge in the final round! I am so excited for you two! Such passion!"

_Wait. That's Gai. Why is Gai alive this morning?_

The question nagged Belgarion for several seconds before he decided curiosity outweighed hangover.

"Unnn… Gai .. how can you be … so …? You drank three bottles last night too didn't you? Why are you up so early?"

"MY YOUTHFUL PASSION!"

"Ugh, if only I were as young as you." Suddenly Belgarion recalled something, he had changed his face to look closer to his age last night. Why weren't Lee and Neji at least wondering about his withered appearance? He touched his face.

Nothing, no wrinkles, no pockmarks, nothing. For some reason he had changed his face back to the 'youthful and handsome' he had chosen to blend with the other gennin. Why had he changed back in the middle of the night? He couldn't think of a reason.

He got the shock of his life when the reason squirmed slightly under the sheets beside him.

Of course he had slept with women since C'nedra's death, he would have gone mad with pent up stress over the last two millennia otherwise, and even woken up beside one the morning after the anniversary of her death on occasion. He just didn't want to explain that to a pair of fourteen year old gennin. Especially not Lee, there was something just so … innocent about him.

So now the morning after syndrome was complete, he had a major (three bottles of sake major) hangover, a pair of noisy, thick browed, be-spandexed FREAKS making noise while Neji looked on with a smile way too mature for his age and an off duty mist chuunin in his bed.

And he really needed a kebab to eat so he had something to throw up. It just got worse when he realised that he hadn't encountered a kebab shop the entire time he had been on this world. _Damn. Have to improvise._

"Lee, training." The green beast snapped to attention, "locate the best Okonomiyaki stand in the village and report to me on the roof in twenty minutes." Before he could speak Lee was gone, dashing off at high speed, just as hoped, "Neji make sure he doesn't wind up on some self imposed challenge for the rest of the day." Neji just sniggered and wandered off.

Just then the warm mass next to him began to shift. Belgarion panicked, "Gai-sensei … do something!" Gai also nodded happily, in a knowing manner overlaid with an almost Lee-like naivety.

Belgarion thought a moment as he caught his breath, then looked down into the awakening eyes staring up at him, "Umm, hi, you wanna go out for Okonomiyaki?"

Finally the snatch of memory he sought fell into his grasp, her name was Mai.

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Neji sighed, for his second day's training Belgarion had told him to ask Naruto for a complete description of the kage bunshin. He had refused to give away any information that could allow Neji to exploit it's weaknesses but Jiraiya had decided to go into lecture mode. It was taking a while. 

"… so once you've got it right you can't alter the amount of chakra each clone is allocated, it will always be exactly evenly distributed but the amount of chakra each one is given will affect it's usefulness, for example; if I had enough chakra to create two bodies for thirty seconds, call it twelve units, and I used the kage bunshin no jutsu to produce one clone, that clone would possess enough chakra to survive thirty seconds, six units, and there would be the same amount left in my system, six units. If I used the jutsu to create two clones then they would posses enough chakra to last twenty seconds, four each, and I would have the left overs, the last four. Now kage bunshin can also expend the chakra that supports them to use nin and gen jutsu, so for example, henge takes about as much chakra to perform as it does for a bunshin to survive three seconds, therefore, by the theory of simultaneous chakra expenditure part of my theory on why the chidori takes so damn much chakra, and why the sharingan itself is so draining. The theory states that chakra expenditure occurring while a jutsu is being maintained is proportional to an exponent of its normal cost.(ie: second jutsu used takes twice as much chakra as normal, third three times etc.), it would cost the bunshin six seconds worth of chakra to use henge, thus shortening it's duraiton. Since the average chuunin possess enough reserves to sustain forty kage bunshin for a whole minute using a single kage bunshin gives that one clone enough chakra to last nearly half an hour. Now, since no clone is likely to go that long in combat without taking a blow, this can lead to major waste of chakra as it will be lost instantly when the clone goes 'poof'. That's why the technique is normally restricted to experienced jounin."

Neji nodded and prepared to stand, that was enough information concerning a skill he had no actually interest in thankyou.

Jiraiya however didn't notice, "Now that only applies to the standard kage bunshin, there is another type used by people who prefer taijutsu that does not distribute the chakra evenly and thus could not fool your byakugan as Naruto's did, it also can not use and nin or gen jutsu at all. In exchange however it gains the ability to survive a greater amount of damage …"

It just went on and on.

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Neji trained. 

Today however, he had answered a whole series of questions correctly. The feeling was strange, as he had realised the answer to the final question his mind had opened up. No longer was he straining at the edges of his capabilities, forcing new levels of skill and power to come into his grasp, now he felt like a child, as though all the achievements of his life thus far amounted to little more than a single tenth of a percent of his life rather than nearly half given that the average shinobi is KIA somewhere in his mid-thirties. He recalled how much easier it was to improve himself back then, every step had been a major leap forward, every word a dramatic jump in his mental prowess, not like it had been ten minutes ago. Ten minutes ago Neji had been struggling with a wall, something everyone encounters, as he brought new powers under his sway it became exponentially more of a strain to reach further, to become greater. His very mind and capacities had pushed back on him, now every step required the effort a dozen had taken him in the past.

That had been ten minutes ago. Ten minutes ago he had answered a question correctly, now he once more felt as though it was as easy to advance as it had been when he was fresh from the womb, it was almost as though a level of power he had never even been able to conceive of had suddenly been made available to him and it's very presence sucked at him, dragging him forward, toward a new and higher level than he had been able to reach in his lifetime prior.

But first he needed to cover the ground of his remaining untapped potential and at least be able to stand at the bottom of the plateau his new potential represented. Thinking quietly Neji realised that if he intended to reach the new peak power made visible to him within a normal lifespan he would have to completely master the Hyuuga ryu juken before approximately … four o'clock this afternoon.

Better get started then.

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Across the village of hidden mist there were seven gennin straining against the wall Neji had simply removed from his life, had he known Neji would have wondered at that. After all, there were no less than twelve gennin in the final round of the test. Discarding Neji since he had so recently overcome this wall and Belgarion since he had shown Neji how and probably passed it himself sometime ago that left three gennin out there who didn't have to push themselves as hard as the others to achieve the same results as the others. Of course they all pushed themselves just as hard to achieve greater results. 

As Neji pounded his way toward total mastery of the juken Rock Lee advanced along his path to the creation of his own juken style, he never slowed when the going got harder. After all he had never experienced the phase in his life when it was easier to learn things, he had had to push desperately since he was born, now when things got harder Rock Lee chose to advance faster.

Less than five metres away stood his sparring partner for the day, another person who could advance rapidly, his reason was not as noble as Lee's, nor was it a level of enlightenment like Neji's, Uzumaki Naruto had simply not hit a limit to what he could achieve in his lifetime because when it got hard to push at his own strengths he had moved on to greater control of the Kyubi and he had never even been within sight of his limits there, after all demons lived so much longer than humans.

The fifth person? It remains unknown exactly why he had never slowed his improvement but his reason was identical to one of those already mentioned. But whose?

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"Good, now you simply release your will power into the mold of the image in your mind by speaking the word. The word must completely describe image you want to fill. That makes the technique rather tricky and nearly impossible to use for something as complicated as a normal jutsu. But it can also be more versatile if you know what you're doing." 

Neji grunted, the force of will sitting in the back of his mind was barely one hundredth of what he could handle at once and even that capacity would increase with time, but right now it felt like he was holding back the very wrath of the gods with only the balance of his mind.

No relief, Belgarion just droned on, "so I think we will start with a simple affect. I call it the 'inarticulate howl' simply build up as much will power as you can and release while shouting a raw wordless emotion."

Neji drew breath and paused as Belgarion spoke up once more, "That way if you would."

Turning Neji prepared to release his rage at the head family, he paused mid gesture as he realised he had simply stopped caring about them since he had left the clan. He tried fighting the feeling that should have assaulted his mind at the mere thought of Lee surpassing him, again nothing, or perhaps an idle wonder if he would maybe feel even a slight pride in his comrade's development. Nothing. Neji tried venting rage upon hordes of attacking sound nins and saving Konoha in his mind from immediate destruction. Nothing.

Pain built in his heart, he simply didn't have anything in his soul anymore that could feel emotions that strongly. Bitterly he thought that if sound attacked then he wouldn't be able to stand against them in his state, hell even if the head family decided to kill him off and maintain the secrets of the Hyuuga ryu he would be powerless against them. His futility ate at him, he could simply not feel the raw emotion he needed right now, about all he could feel was a slight hope Lee would achieve his dreams. And Neji hated that futility.

Howling like Naruto did when he activated his 'shikyaku no jutsu' Neji sniggered slightly at the thought, after his fight at the last chuunin exam there was no way neji would buy that line. Neji flung out one arm in a wide arc and suddenly felt light headed. He fell backward onto the grass, breathing heavily he surveyed the situation with his chakra sight. Nothing had changed, he sat there emotionally numb, feeling drained as though in his moment of weakness he had lost hold of that pounding willpower in his mind and out of breath from his scream.

Nothing.

Neji's mind could 'see' where his ejected willpower had settled in the environment calmly, doing nothing. _Damn._

"I've failed that one haven't I?"

"Hmm?" Belgarion raised one eyebrow, squatting next to his drained protégé the older gennin drew a kunai from Neji's holster and flung it to the ground at the centre of the pool of energy Neji had let loose.

The muscles of Neji's face contracted in such a manner that, had he eyes, they would be wide in awe. The Kunai landed point down in the soil, cutting a neat hole in the flow of the energies Neji had released. With this disruption came a shuddering crack and the entire field in the direction Neji faced shattered. Earth jerked up and created jagged craters and mini canyons like some godly doton jutsu, trees lay snapped and split, the small stream ran randomly and dissipated to nothing amongst the new paths open to it.

Irony lay thick in Belgarion's voice as he wandered out of the clearing.

"Failed?"

Neji began to shake violently as fatigue set in with a vengeance like the fire of gods.

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After only three days Neji had a firm enough grasp of the basics of the will and the word theory to start on a new theory Belgarion had developed over his centuries of travel amongst the various worlds. 

"So, even if you can't put the entire complexity of the task into a single word, you can achieve much using the name of a jutsu that epitomises the effect in the minds of those around you.

"There is no way you can put something as complicated as a lightning elemental defensive jutsu into a single word. But, given the affect of ambient willpowers on your own will working, what do you think if you gathered your will, created the image of a sphere surrounding you and protecting you and spoke the word 'raihekihoujin' in front of a crowd of cloud nins? Many are familiar with a jutsu called raihekihoujin that creates a sphere of electrical energy to protect the caster, therefore when you speak that word the ambient minds will fill in the details for you and the wall will be created. Try it."

Nodding warily at the new concept Neji gathered his will, formed the image and spoke the word.

"RAIHEKI HOUJIN!"

Neji felt the details of the jutsu flood out of Belgarion's mind into the mould he erected for his willpower. Information about the jutsu filled his mind as well.

When assaulted by an outside force the field contracted to a single point, creating a barrier far superior to his kaiten in terms of force to break through to chakra ratios, but when assaulted from multiple directions the field was significantly weaker than the divination whirl.

Neji's head jerked up when Belgarion flicked a rock at him only to have it stop mid air and lose all of it's momentum, dropping to the ground. The blind ex-Hyuuga was shocked to 'see' that there was a cloudy blue field of static obscuring some of his chakra 'vision' about a metre from his body in all directions … except down. Another piece of vital data came to mind, the field would not protect against attacks coming from any surface he was standing upon, any doton jutsu when he stood on the ground, any suiton if he stood on water, non physical elements didn't incur this benefit, even while airborne no kazeton jutsu would pierce this defence.

The hazy blockage suddenly became an opaque blotch the size of a coin as Belgarion flicked another stone into the area if the barrier.

"Good."

"So this will be a compliment to my kaiten, each absorbing hits the other can not."

"No. if you attempt the whirl while this skill is active … well just don't ok? Not while I'm standing so close anyway. Next gather your will and think of a large spinning vortex of water surrounding you and say, 'suiton, suijin heki' release with the word 'heki'."

Neji simply nodded and moved to stand on the surface of the now marshy section left over from his 'inarticulate howl' three days ago, "SUITON, SUIJIN _HEKI!_"

A swirling vortex of water rose from the muddy ground and created a barrier just inside his raiheki, just as advertised. Once more information came in, this barrier was effective against attacks from all angles and weak against a focussed attack against one point, the perfect compliment to the lightning field.

Neji let the barriers fall only to find himself alone in the clearing.

Apparently he was supposed to practice alone.

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Today Neji pushed his limits. He found at one time he was able to support a suiton, raiton and one hyouton (ice element) simultaneously. The problem was of course that even though initiated by his willpower these jutsu consumed vast amounts of chakra to maintain. Not that it really mattered, maintaining his field of vision non-stop for the last four months had given Neji a chakra reserve to rival Gai-sensei, maybe even approaching Naruto's level. 

Despite the major chakra drain the technique was still worthy of the B-Rank jutsu classification, in terms of both function and skill requirements. Indeed the skill was possibly even more frighteningly lethal than the famed chidori, but also like the chidori Neji's new skill was incomplete, not quite good enough to pass into the A-Rank with the Rasengan.

Neji sighed, another of Jiraya's lectures had been on that jutsu. Not the sort of information that would allow Neji even the illusion of a chance of learning the skill but a lecture on what separated the A-rank rasengan from the B-rank chidori. The perverted sennin had ranted for an hour about the fact that the highest mastery of the rasengan allowed the wielder to create any chakra weapon on the spot, with a power and stability surpassing even chakra regulated devices like the legendary raijin no ken and a further hour pointing out that sufficient mastery allowed the user to reclaim the chakra afterward, meaning the technique cost almost literally nothing unless you count the mental stress encountered at that level of chakra manipulation. When Neji had left the hermit had been discoursing at great length about the odd fact that the only jutsu considered S-class were kawarimi and a spying jutsu he claimed to be derived from a peeping jutsu he himself had invented.

Neji considered a moment, Katon would not sit well in the presence of both suiton and hyouton, maybe doton? Or perhaps he could find a twist with the adition of kazeton?

It seems that despite his advanced state Neji held to the somewhat childish idea that if he could mix enough elements his technique would improve. As it was his technique was moving from a B-rank combined killing and defence manoeuvre to something that was really only useful as an exercise in chakra control. There are some lessons only learnt with time.

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Yeah... i still havent found out where those brackets were meant to go, but i trust my judgement and therefore they must still be missing

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Oohhhh tricked you there didn't i? actually I didn't but I thought about tricking you so there. Next chapter comes Lee and naruto's pre exam training and probably some NaruHina. After that Shino and Tenten's respective training a bit of ShinoSaku and on to the main matches. 

Also I don't know what happened to me for the first half of this chapter but I make no appologies, in the end I'm writing and … yeah that's it. But if you liked it in some odd obscure way tell me, I did.

AND what I said about a sake hangover is true, although I wouldn't call three bottles of sake major, I had three and a half on my eighteenth at toast-nii's house and I got a hangover on the scale far beyond what was described in this chapter, but then Belgarion is a big and heavily built alorn and men are supposed to be able to take it better than women (sniggers)


	13. Hospitals and the ring

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

**Word of god(and possibly the box as well)**Despite my prior definite anti TenXNeji stance I have altered events in this chapter and the next to have Tenten … well you'll see, lets just say that if you want that pairing to have a chance say so in a review.

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The chapter with feet

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One could be forgiven for thinking that the girl in pink was tired from training the entire six hours of sunlight that had passed already today. Or for mistaking the pill she was swallowing for a simple hyourogan, popped into her mouth to give her the energy to train all afternoon and into the night. 

These assumptions would however be wrong, Tenten hadn't been training all day, in fact she had only managed to crawl out of bed about an hour ago. The pill now dissolving on her tongue was nothing like a soldier pill either, soldier pills replenished chakra it would have defeated the purpose of such a pill to require as much chakra to activate as this one was taking from the tenketsu in Tenten's mouth. And of course Hyourogan tasted bad, not at all like the sickeningly sugary sweetness invading Tenten' taste buds as the soul candy did it's job.

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Naruto grinned, Lee had caught all three kunai and shifted his grip to hurl them back as Naruto advanced with a wild leaping punch. All three kunai poof-ed into kage bunshin and held Lee in place for the incoming blow from Naruto, an exceedingly powerful strike but one even a gennin could have evaded under normal circumstances, exactly why three shadow clones now held the green beast immobile. So why was the older gennin smiling? 

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As his foot connected with Naruto's chin Lee watched the younger boy's eyes bulge with some satisfaction, as the orange clad gennin was hurled skyward a shadow in green spandex and a grey woollen cloak followed him. Turning his attention to the strong hands holding him in place Lee twisted his left wrist, effectively regaining freedom for that limb. His left leg was soon also freed by a swift strike dispelling the clone crouched bellow him, sensing it's sudden vulnerability the clone holding his right hand dropped it's grip and danced back to a pincer formation with it's sole surviving companion. 

Lee cursed inwardly, as much as he ever allowed himself to curse at any rate, normally the sole hope for victory against multiple opponents with superior positioning was to take advantage of any awkwardness they felt fighting together, these were clones, sharing exactly the same mind and the same thoughts, they worked together perfectly. Still even as kage bunshin had strengths human opponents did not so too did they have weaknesses human opponents did not.

Gathering chakra, Lee focussed on electrical energies, the feeling he got when he stuck a nine volt battery on his tongue, the painful jolt that time he had unwittingly peed on an electric fence and above all the soul shattering force of the ration jutsu used on them during the first test. With his chakra in place there was only one thing left to do, Lee's foot came crashing to the ground, chakra escaped his body like water escaping a dish towel.

The clone facing the green beast faltered slightly as, with a sudden swirling of grey wool, Lee had covered nearly half the distance between them, it relaxed slightly when it's fellow spotted the inevitable opening at Lee's back and charged. Two clones might have barely the chances of a snowball in hell of actually defeating such a potent taijutsu specialist but between them they hoped, if a chakra construct could feel such an emotion, to delay his victory long enough for the original to recover from the blow and whatever else had been dealt him and make use of an opening. The clone dodged the first blow, considered a moment and chose to defend against the second in a manner that would make the blow less likely to dispel it but leave it open to the third, hopefully the other clone would have covered the distance and distracted Lee by then.

As Lee lined up for a second blow, a hooking kick to the back of the knee, he heard the pop indicating the demise of a bunshin as it passed through the patch of electrified air right behind him, the clone before him shifted it's position to compensate for the lack of coming support and prepared to counter.

Then came a signal Lee had hoped to have both clones beaten before, his own voice rang out from a dozen or so metres overhead, "Koraseru rendan!" (Freezing combo.), that meant he had at most a second left to take out this clone before the real Naruto was once more able to attack him.

Fortunately the solution came from the clone itself, acting upon the slight distraction Lee had displayed upon hearing the shout the clone threw a straight punch toward Lee's ribs. Shifting his kick from a low hooking motion directed toward the knee, the green beast flicked his foot over the incoming arm and twisted at the waist. The feeling of bone shattering under his touch was almost sickening for the split second before the damage became too great and the clone vanished in a puff of smoke.

Lee turned in time to see a struggling orange and grey blob smash into the ground, the green beast blanched slightly as he saw himself land badly and splash everywhere like a water balloon full of black ink. Naruto however somehow managed to shift and land safely, casting aside doubt and the ill feeling in his stomach of just having seen himself die Lee shot forward, going for a sustained assault.

With a flurry of blows Lee evaluated his opponents condition, eight blows were barely avoided, three blows hit, two thickening the ice and further slowing the orange clad gennin's muscular response, one releasing a surge of doton chakra and almost destroying the flexibility of Naruto's leg and making it sink slightly into the ground, even when he stood on rocks. After seeing the blonde spar Belgarion two months earlier Lee had been worried his speed with the weights on would simply not be enough to counter the sheer velocities Naruto pushed his orange jumpsuit toward, but now all evidence indicated that as long as he could keep the balance of elemental chakra mixed up.

Suddenly red chakra flared and all of the speed Lee had stripped from his opponent returned tenfold, eyes narrowed and a pair of extremely heavy weights hit Naruto in the chest, the first gate opened almost of it's own accord and the two set off at nearly invisible speed, sparring becoming a race, run for the sheer joy of being around someone who could keep pace with each of their new levels of acceleration.

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Lee groaned, the ceiling was just too white. _... white? Ceiling? A white ceiling means…_ A slight turn of the head was all it took to confirm Lee's suspicion, he was in hospital. 

"You're awake." It was a statement, definitely not a question, it had to be Neji speaking. Lee shifted his gaze to take in his stoic team mate. He found it odd, he was able to move easily, there was nearly no strain to any of his muscles at all. But he remembered that he had definitely opened at least four gates yesterday, the first time he had performed the primary lotus he had been out for a week and a half, the next time had been even longer but that was during his fight with Gaara, so why, since he had foolishly opened four gates on the eleventh, did the calendar on the wall indicate today to be the twelfth? There was simply no way he could have recovered that fast.

Lee nodded in response to Neji, "But why?"

"Belgarion says that since your inner coils have been burst the gates have stopped functioning normally, you simply don't have enough to hold all that strength in so in stead of building up and making your muscles work so hard the destroy themselves it all leaked into the surrounding area and used up all your chakra. Gai-sensei seems kinda pissed you actually used the gates in a practice match by the way."

Neji stood and left while Lee cringed at the thought, before he noticed Lee found himself alone in his room. He sighed and let the memories flood back as he analysed each.

Belgarion's theory on the gates seemed correct, even with six gates open (as _that_ memory came back he shuddered at even the thought) not enough chakra had filled his muscles to even begin the primary lotus on an opponent as fast as Naruto had been, what had happened was that the chakra had lingered in great enough concentration just outside his body to extend a physical presence even without conscious moulding, to Lee's great surprise it had also remained under his complete control.

Naruto had grinned like a madman and his own chakra had formed a visible red field around him, then a clawed hand reaching out to strike. Lee had nearly fallen over in terror when his own aura had formed a hand of similar dimensions and halted the attack. The fight became blurred with memory until the point where Lee's chakra had simply run out, the two arms reaching out to defend against an attack so Lee would have an opening to plant a blow in Naruto's face manually simply vanished, the strength in Lee's limbs retreated at about the same moment and rather than slamming his fist into Nauto's nose he found himself dropping to the ground and awaiting the crushing pain that the falling wall of chakra would certainly bring.

It turned out Naruto had more control than that however as the wall dissipated and the only thing that came crashing down on Lee was a warm breeze, Lee's final light headed thought (light headedness Lee now recognised as sign of chakra depletion) was that it was simply so very nice of the blonde gennin not to crush him to death and how great would his new cloak look with green stripes.

The green beast had a few moments to wonder if Naruto had needed to visit the hospital.

Then Gai bust into the room.

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Tenten smiled happily to herself. 

Tenten winced as a lecture on the power of youth and never misusing it began at full volume in the next room but even Gai's antics taking place so nearby did little to remove her smile.

Neji had come to visit her.

He had seemed surprised and said he was looking for Lee and got the wrong room. But after she had invited him to stop and visit a while he had sat quietly by her bed for nearly an hour.

In a way his silence had caused her more elation than anything he could have said, after all if he was willing to simply sit with her despite having nothing to say that had to mean something right?

A darker, more cynical part of herself mistrusted this sudden change in behaviour, especially after her encounter with Belgarion the day before, seriously why would they _both_ suddenly start being nicer to her.

Tenten sighed at herself and wondered if she was just being foolish, he had treated her exactly the same way before their argument about her infatuation with Neji, maybe he was simply treating her that way again since she had told him she recognised her infatuation as a crush and was going to back off and avoid emotional pain when Neji was forced to leave. Did that mean he would once more treat her differently when he realised that was just a lie?

She thought back to the meeting.

She had been practicing sword forms on one side of the clearing while the artificial soul that would control her body when she used the pill in combat practiced throwing kunai so it wouldn't be too different from her own style.

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_She shook her head and cursed when another handful of kunai left the hand, _her_ hand really even if she wasn't the one controlling it at this point, and barely managed to find themselves within the outer ring of the targets. No-one would believe that was her if she was forced to use the soul candy in combat._

_Apparently the mod soul was getting pissed off too, it threw the summoning scroll to the ground in a fit of pique. Then an idea seemed to form in its mind, it swiped it's foot over the exposed surface of the scroll a few times and waited for the smoke to clear. The girl formerly in pink but now wearing traditional robes on the theme of black paused in her sword pattern to watch as her body stood with about twenty kilos of throwing weaponry attached to it's foot with chakra. Her body turned in a perfect spinning heel, her foot arced around at waist height and there was a series of 'plinks' as the chakra hold was released on the weapons one at a time._

_She nearly dropped her katana when she realised that not only had the weapons hit dead centre on the targets but the smaller senbon, shuriken and kunai had pierced cleanly and passed out the other side, the larger throwing kama(sickles) and the few pinwheels and fuma shuriken (not to mention the seven or so other varieties of large shuriken represented by the sample on display) were all embedded right to the handles._

_She was slightly puzzled as her body continued it's spin three sixty degrees and flicked one last kunai backward toward the path leading to this training area._

_Moments later a figure walked into view, it was cloaked in grey, had sandy coloured hair and a big grin. He also had his right hand upraised and the thrown kunai was still held between two fingers where it had been caught, on the palm of the hand there was a pale silver circle._

_The girl once in pink watched carefully as her body greeted the newcomer, "Hi Belgarion," her brow furrowed (the brow attached to her current self not her body) when the soul in her body finished the greeting in an odd language, not truly a different language to her own but a different dialect she sometimes heard her parents use when they thought no one was listening, "yasashiburi da na?"(been a long time hasn't it?)._

_Belgarion's voice went quiet as he considered something, he glanced at the kunai in his hand and at the two shuriken still grasped between her bodies toes, then he shook his head, "I actually never expected to see you again Kon, I though Ichigo gave you back to Uruhara." He flicked the kunai toward her, not her body but her, he shouldn't even be able to see her, "Hi Tenten, I can't believe you trusted this pervo freak with your body."_

_Before she could reply a heated response leapt from the lips of her body, "Hey I'll have you know that a soul is a completely asexual (lit: without gender) entity, much like water I adopt the shape, or in this case sex of my container. Right now I wouldn't even be interested if nee-chan came past naked … although I do have this disturbing urge to sneak a peak on you in the bath."_

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Tenten had simply watched the conversation in ever growing shock, it hadn't surprised her when the mod soul had greeted Belgarion by name, it had access to all of her body's memories so that it could masquerade as her unnoticed. What had shocked her was Belgarion greeting it by name and being able to see her. Those things weren't supposed to happen. 

Latter on Belgarion had taken a look at her katana and sworn, when she asked him what was wrong he had told her that his next excuse to not teach her the nazukerunai ryu – satsujin ken (nameless killing sword) was going to be that it required a very powerful sword to use and no one in Konoha was capable of forging such a sword, unfortunately standing there in soul form was Tenten, no longer a kunoichi but a shinigami (female ninja and death spirit respectively, though I doubt more than one percent of people looking in the Naruto section on don't actually know those already) and a zanpakutou (soul slayer) was definitely a powerful enough blade to use the Mibu clan's skills.

He had looked at her with his head tilted to one side for several seconds before turning and gesturing for her body to move over next to her soul, Kon had scurried to obey.

Without turning to look at them he had drawn his sword and held it before his face, blade parallel to the ground. The first and second finger of his left hand came up and lay against the flat of the blade, just above the cross piece. They stayed in place until the section of blade they touched began to glow red hot, then they began to slowly slide toward the tip of the weapon.

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_When they reached the end and the entire length of the blade glowed as if still in the forge he lifted it to rest across his shoulders, only then did Belgarion shift his gaze to take them in, he spoke quietly but clearly enough that Tenten had been able to hear, "Observe." A single word._

_He made a single stroke in the direction of the woods, a text book right shoulder to left hip stroke, he lifted his sword as to sheathe it and paused, the tip of the blade hovering just within the opening. He spoke once more, ever so quietly, "Did you hear it Tenten?"_

"_Wha…?"_

_As she began her question he simply cut her off, "The voice … of the wind?"_

_Each word was carefully pronounced and she could hear the sound of each letter sliding into place. As the final echo began to shift in the air it was overpowered by a great crashing sound._

_Several trees fell to the ground, there were too many pieces for Tenten to follow, it could have been as many as thirty trees coming down or as few as five, but they had all begun to drop at the sound of Belgarion's voice._

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Tenten grimaced, she had gone back latter and checked, there were twenty six stumps freshly cut. 

She shifted her sore muscles, after learning Belgarion would be in the examKon had decided she would not only need to be a lot more powerful in her shinigami form but he would also have to fight along side her if they wanted to win. He had trained in her body until she had seen it drop to the ground in exhaustion, she had also trained past the sane level, barely retaining enough reiraku (spirit power) to shift back into her body. Not to mention that she had nearly choked on the soul candy that she had coughed up by ejection Kon from her body. Then she had woken up here to find Kon's soul candy in a zip lock bag by her bed, a note from Belgarion and Neji apologising for entering the wrong room by mistake.

Idly she read the note.

_If you plan to use Kon in the finals take the other pill at the same time,_

Tenten paused and noticed a black pill in the bag as well.

_It will make your soul visible to normal people and stop you from being disqualified because the judge thinks you can no longer fight if Kon gets knocked out._

_You should find a sword style of your own since the nameless killing sword has no defensive stance and no normal blows. The entire style is made up f two attacks:_

_Kaze no koe_ (the voice of the wind)_ and_

_Akai genjutsu _(the red illusion)

_While the sword is powerful and using those two attacks can overcome any defence and regeneration abilities it is also limited, it will always kill and it takes too long unless you have another combo to give you the time to prepare for it._

Tenten shook her head, how was she supposed to take this letter? Was it a move toward friendship? Was he trying to convince her not to learn the style or merely pointing out that she couldn't get by with the style alone?

In a fit of pique she hit the intercom to the front desk and began to pester them about when she could be released.

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Shino carefully looked at the sheet of paper with the draw printed on it, secretly he felt it was a bit silly of him not to have at least found out who he was going to face first off before this but he was looking now. He had only decided to go and check after he had over heard Gai briefing Lee and Neji on their opponents, apparently both were from families famed for having used some sort of ration jutsu to create new juuken styles based on things cloud nins had learnt from fighting Hyuugas. His interest had peaked when Gai had mentioned that, _"Shino's opponent as well uses a combat style that broadly falls under the heading of juuken"_. 

Gai had said this was rapidly becoming the battle of the juuken styles, what with two from konoha, two from kumo and one from kiri making it to the final round. Lee had asked who the second leaf juuken user was.

Shino had lost interest and wandered off when Gai began to argue that the addition of Lee's elemental chakra was turing his style away from the tekken (iron fist) and toward the juuken.

Now studying the match ups Shino saw why his opponent fell into the juuken category, unless one fought the same way as Tsunade and Sakura it was extremely difficult to see combat medical techniques as an external style. Studying the rest of the line up the bug master noted grimly that Ayame had been correct about the mist manipulating it to give their own an advantage, exactly as predicted she was matched against the bloodline user from hidden stone and Belgarion faced the mist swordsman, both mist nins were in different blocks to prevent them being forced to knock each other out before the final round. He also noted that the line up left open the possibility of him facing Belgarion or Neji in the final round.

He felt kind of sorry for Tenten having to face Naruto right off the bat, not only an insanely powerful foe but a team mate to boot.

Maybe he would go train with Sakura to get used to facing medical techniques. He felt a smile creeping up o him already.

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Neji sat, the lotus position came so naturally to him now that it was easier than sitting normally like Naruto was. The ex-Hyuuga directed his 'sight' to his left and examined his first opponent, the cloud nin who had tried to kill Hinata's team while they were unconscious, Akage Ryo. 

Naruto sat, legs extended and torso leant back slightly so that he could gaze up into the stands. Closer inspection would reveal that staring back directly into his blue orbs were a pair of pale silver ones.

His opponent stood next to him, idly flicking a kunai in the air and catching it Tenten was the most animated of the three female finalists.

The other leaf kunoichi, Tsurugi Ayame, stood perfectly still, as though at attention, awaiting orders with a calm discipline, being careful not to glare or even acknowledge her opponent, stone's Kouga Toramasa

The only Kunoichi not from leaf sat with the reflective stillness of one practiced in a juuken style, Sekitou Hyouri tried with iron patience not to openly display her irritation as her opponent leapt up and down shouting joyously about who he could be facing in the final round, as though her defeat in the first was a given.

Lee's cloak swirled and revealed the painfully bright body suit beneath as he bounced about in excitement, pondering aloud the chances of Neji defeating Belgarion and facing him in the final round or the possibility that it would be Naruto who pushed to the finals.

Beside him stood Belgarion, resplendent in his grey cloak and nearly invisible in the equally grey mist.

Hoshigaki Kagato shifted eagerly, flicking the bindings around his blade in anticipation of his match.

Simply standing quietly in line and waiting were Aburame Shino and Sanada Kumomaru, neither bothering to indulge in the pre match hype, and both respecting their foe slightly more for that forbearance.

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The jounin idly flicked at the bandages covering his otherwise exposed torso, the little displays of excitement seemed to be going down well with the crowd so he saw no reason to form the examinees into lines for presentation, still the leaf kid shouting about facing the blind leaf kid in the final round was getting kinda irritating but the matches would be starting soon. 

Then he got the signal, he spoke commandingly, "Stand in line, look up, let the people see the combatants."

They all stood in line looking into the stands, even the noisy one suddenly went silent, apparently he was the type to become all business right before battle.

A deep breath and the jounin announced the first match, "The first match will be between Uzumaki Naruto and Herikawa Tenten both of Konoha, everyone else please head over to the examinee's balcony."

As the gennin left the jounin took quick stock of the two who would be fighting, the boy in bright orange immediately failed to impress. The kunoichi however was definitely confident and self assured. That why it surprised him when he heard her say that even if she couldn't win she would try to give him a good fight.

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"How do you think it will go?" Lee sounded slightly worried for his former team mate. 

"Naruto will defeat Tenten." Neji's statement was flat almost unconcerned.

"True, she wont beat him. But that isn't the point, if Naruto takes long enough getting started before going all out she will easily show enough skill to be considered for promotion." Belgarion interjected relaxedly.

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Yes ... FEET

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yay for biscuits! 

I didn't actually think this chappie could be streatched this long but I wanted to start the first round of the exam next chapter.

The match up looks like this for those interested.

Uzumaki Naruto vs Herikawa Tenten

Belgarion of Riva vs Hoshigaki Kagato

Mibu Neji vs Akage Ryo

Rock Lee vs Sekitou Hyouri

Aburame Shino vs Sanada Kumomaru

Tsurugi Ayame vs Kouga Toramasa

And I changed Sekitou Hyouzo to Sekitou Hyouri so there were more females in the finals. (ignore this sentence, i didnt end up doing it)

**Dragon man:** sorry about that i just got into jutsu essay mode and couldnt help it, and im sorry to dissapoint with the non neji naruto line up so far but ill see what i can do. incidentally i am having trouble writing one of the matches in this round and i just cant get the match to turn out the way the story needs it to go. i wont spoil who and how it needs to turn out unless youre interested in having a go at writing it though.


	14. Blades and the beast

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Ahh, nearing the end of the chapter editing now

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Naruto dashed through the clouds that lingered after a number of kage bunshin were destroyed by a similar number of summoned weapons. He launched a curled fist at where Tenten had landed in the smoke, he knew the punch would not connect but he also knew that in her evasion his team mate would leave herself open to a brutal hook kick. 

Needless to say, he was momentarily horrified to find that she must have failed to notice him as his mind registered the sickening feeling of her face being crushed under the force delivered at the end of his arm. The shock was so great he allowed his technique to become slightly sloppy and was rewarded with the broad, flat pain of his wrist dislocating.

Possibly worse however was what came next, the feeling of crushing bone vanished and the fox boy cursed his foolishness as it was replaced by the sharp impact of splintering wood. _Kawarimi._ He nearly spat in his own mind.

The situation shifted further downhill as Naruto's body passed over what he had thought a discarded weapon summoning scroll, it turned out that it was in fact not quite used up. The boy in orange felt five, six … seven kunai slam into his torso with enough force to alter the course of his flight and send him over ten metres into the air, well above the top of the quickly disappearing cloud of smoke.

Tumbling end over end out of the cloud to one side came the log Naruto had found his hand buried in moments before, as the side that had faced away from him previously came into view the blonde simply prepared himself to deal with any pain coming his way in the next few moments.

In the middle of the pattern was a weapon scroll marked with a picture of an unusually long senbon, surrounding it was an elemental seal scroll, the large sealing rune (not kanji, sealing jutsu seem to have their own language) in the middle Naruto recognised as force or velocity from Jiraiya's lessons in sealing.

A handful of senbon popped into existence as the writing on the centre scroll faded, they hung for a moment before beginning to fall to the ground. The rune in the middle vanished with an odd, slicing noise and the senbon halted their descent and launched themselves at Naruto.

Naruto hung in shock, pinned to the wall with about twenty XL sized senbon and bleeding profusely.

Tenten's voice seemed to come from all around him beginning with a soft chuckle, "You seem shocked that I would go for such a sure kill trap against my team mate. You forget that, as your team mate, I know all about your unnatural healing abilities and that you can easily shrug this off. You figure that your healing is too much for me to overcome and decided to let me show my skills for a while before beating me. However your regeneration is not unlimited, your battle with Belgarion-san proved that. I entered this tournament with the full intention of winning Naruto-kun. I will cause too much damage for your regeneration to keep up and you will be unable to continue."

Naruto's eyes opened in a fiery satisfaction and his senses sought his opponent.

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Tsunade's eyes widened, she had only arrived for the finals this morning and hadn't even had time to visit with the Konoha gennin competitors, she had barely had time to change into the official Hokage regalia before joining the Mizukage, Raikage and Tsuchikage in the box. She had been drifting to sleep before the sudden spray of blood snapped her senses into overdrive and focussed her on the raging battle. 

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Leaning forward slightly, Belgarion spoke over the shoulders of the only two people in the section of the stands set aside for the parents of the gennin whose souls didn't match the shape of their boddies, "You daughter is putting on quite a show today isn't she?" 

Herikawa Keiichi and Tomoe jumped slightly and looked at the speaker, when they recognised a comrade not seen for nearly four centuries it was Kurosaki Ichigo and Rukia who smiled back at him.

"Yo."

"Hello Belgarion-san."

Belgarion smiled, the last time he had seen them they had fled their home world using the sheer force of Ichigo's reiryaku when they had been forced to perform soul burial on the last of their friends who were dying of old age and the sicknesses that came in later life. "So why are your bodies so different from how you really look?"

"Hmm? Oh simple really, you see the thing is … not everyone here lives for as long as we have," Ichgo made no effort to hide the obvious sarcasm in that statement, "and with and immortality obsessed weirdo like Orochimaru on the prowl … yeah. So every few decades we take twenty or so years off from the ninja business, go back to Urahara's and get new gigai (false bodies used by shinigami in the mortal world) and start again. We normally have a deal with the Hokages to make our return go a bit more soothly but that's about it."

Belgarion didn't bother asking if Tenten had brothers and sisters over the five hundred odd years of their marriage, it would cost about three centuries of a jounin level ninja's mission fees to buy a gigai capable of conceiving, and slightly more for one Ichigo could have used to get his wife pregnant. Tenten's birth must have represented quite a lot of work by her parents. Belgarion found it harder and harder to frown on her because of her obsession with Neji.

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"… despite how much I hate it, what Neji says about kunoichi is right. The only kunoichi ever to be able to fight at the S-class level are Tsunade-sama and Kagama Aoi of hidden cloud, over two hundred years before the first Raikage was born, two kunoichi in recorded history, I plan to add to the count. _Now get up!_" 

_Plink._

_Plink._

_Plink._

_Plink._

_Plink._

_Plink._

_Plink._

One at a time the seven Kunai shifted from Naruto's chest and fell to the ground.

A strangled howl escaped his lips as he pulled himself forward, off the needles pinning him to the stadium wall. Leaving behind a pattern of steel spikes and a still dripping bloodstain the orange clad gennin dropped to the stadium floor.

He held up his left hand in one half of the rat seal and smiled broadly, "So we're taking this seriously then?" his right hand rose to waist height, fingers splayed and curled upward, "That does mean that I cant be holding back anymore you know?"

Chakra swirled and almost before they were fully formed five miniature rasengan became five glowing chakra kunai, even Jiraiya was slightly shocked by the ease with which the blond performed the feat, only the Yondaime had managed the rasengan so well. In the crowd several medic nins stared wide eyed when the noticed that despite all the blood staining his clothes his wounds had managed to close themselves some time ago.

With a flick of the wrist the deadly bolts sped across the intervening space. Naruto seemed unfazed when Tenten evaded four of the projectiles and sent the last back toward him. The same hand that had flung the first batch caught the lone returning kunai by the point, without even a slight furrowing of the brow to betray his concentration the single kunai became five senbon, glowing, ribbon like shards of concentrated chakra.

The brunette's eyes widened as she shifted and contorted to avoid the coming strikes, her hand reached out and, using a careful buffer of chakra taught to her by the boy who happened to be her opponent, caught the powerful bolt of chakra, her hand reached out for another and another. As the dust billowed from the impacts of those senbon she had missed she stuck one to the back of her thigh with a little chakra, right next to another of the kunai she had caught during the previous barrage. The smallest of gestures sent the remaining senbon toward her foe.

Smirking Naruto spoke, "Do you really think you can win this match using a technique I taught you?" In an arrogant gesture one hand came up and plucked the senbon from the air. Naruto's eyes widened as he spotted the second senbon in the shadow of the first too late.

He winced and dropped to one knee in agony as the chakra bolt tore up the length of his arm and out the back of his shoulder, still he didn't cry out.

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In the stands many of the ruling lords of the lightning country shuddered as they thought of the impact this little display of power by Konoha would have on their standing against the fire country. 

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The Raikage grit his teeth as he beheld the display before him, no wonder they had lost so many teams in the exam, Konoha must have dedicated a lot of time to specifically training these gennin to make it known they still figured among the world powers by dominating this exam, a by product of course was a powerful political blow to each of the other great hidden villages … except suna, who weren't here and who also happened to be the leaves closest allies amongst the great nations. 

The proud warrior of hidden could turned to nod his recognition of such a master stroke to the Hokage only to find her as glued to the spectacle as everyone in the crowd. Of course the possibility these two gennin were simply exceptional entered his mind but that was simply too convenient and a shinobi could not afford to believe in coincidence.

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In the competitors box Neji ground his teeth, the mist had allowed teachers and team mates and a medic team from each village to sit in the box with the gennin so almost _everyone_ was there and the only ones that remained calm enough to remember how much they had seen him recover from sparing Belgarion were Jiraiya, Shino and himself. 

Shino simply watched Sakura screaming but didn't move to calm her, probably a bit nervous around all these people really. Jiraya actually seemed to enjoy their reactions. 'Looking' around Neji wondered if there was anyone here who he really wanted to go to the effort of calming down …

Certainly not Lee … well he would like Lee to calm down but stopping him from shouting in horror at Naruto's wound wouldn't stop him shouting about other things like he had been since the start of the match. Sakura and Ino seemed to share a certain grudging camaraderie for the blonde and were shouting threats about killing him for getting hurt that badly. Kiba was actually laughing at Naruto's misfortune, perhaps he realised the wound was not that serious to Naruto as well …

Even the jounin sensei group seemed slightly shocked, Neji shook his head. Then he spotted Hinata. She stood gripping the railing for support, shaking slightly as tear threatened to escape the corners of her eyes, perhaps there was someone the ex-Hyuuga didn't want to worry after all.

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Belgarion was deep in conversation with Ichigo and the two of them were actually looking away from the arena floor where Ichigo's daughter was using careful strategy to wipe the floor with her opponent's raw power and short term tactical genius. Apparently Ichigo and Rukia were banned from the court of pure souls and could no more return than Urahara could be declared captain of the first squad. That was a pity since following their deaths Chad, Inoue and Ishida had been appointed to the second, fourth and thirteenth squads respectively and were all ranked too high to be sent to the mortal realm in anything but the most extreme emergencies, and with Ichigo and Urahara there not even the appearance of a menos was enough to warrant deploying them. 

In turn Belgarion told about the four worlds he had visited since they last met until he was struck by a thought, "Hey, you left your world over five hundred years ago right?" a slight nod from the man with brown hair on his head but orange hair on his soul, "that means you've been here since before the first hidden villages were formed."

"Yeah, before leaf was founded we served one generation in each of the wandering ninja clans or fought for the newly emerging hidden stone and sand, when mist was formed we lived a generation here as well but as soon as we first went to the leaf Rukia decided that if we were going to raise our child on this world it was going to be in hidden leaf that we did. I didn't agree with her hasty decision but ever since leaf has been different, even during the wars with lightning and stone it was the type of place and filled with the kind of people I wanted to raise my child around, even after the problems caused by the cloud spy trying to kidnap the Hyuuga girl it was the sort of place I wanted my child to grow up in, even after the assault of the nine tails it was where I wanted her to grow up…"

Ichigo looked like he was going to say more until Rukia nudged him and pointed toward the ring.

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Tenten tensed, this was the moment her plan hinged upon, Naruto had just awakened his 'other' chakra fully and healed the wound in his arm. Tenten readied all six of her remaining weapon scrolls and relaxed her mind so she could predict where Naruto's instincts would throw him. 

"You always complain about being underestimated and forget that your enemies underestimation is one of your greatest advantages, so I have chosen not to underestimate you and you find yourself without your normal advantage." The brunette was fighting hard to keep the nervousness out of her voice but she still spared a bitter thought about how different her personality was today. It was part of the plan, to keep Naruto off balance with some strong psychological attacks, but it still felt wrong to her.

"_Soushoryu"(twin rising dragons)_

As the mass of steel closed in Naruto stood still, his only movement was the heaving of his shoulders as he laboured for breath, all his concentration was spent on pushing back the power coming from behind his seal and not losing himself to the demon within. He would rather let Tenten fill him with kunai and put him in hospital for a few days than let the Kyubi take control and risk killing her.

Still even as he struggled to force the power down he felt his chakra scream out and stop all those throwing weapons mid air, then something blue flickered into his vision, it looked like … one of his rasengan kunai.

… _oh shit._

Tenten didn't even watch as the bolt of chakra tore a hole as large as her fist in the wall protecting Naruto and continued travelling through his shoulder, removing his left arm. Instead she spun mid air, the remaining four scrolls forming a complicated sphere around her as she hung there. Her mouth opened and the name of the final technique available to her without leaving her body hung heavily in the air.

"_Sen-kirikizu no shi" (death of a thousand cuts)_

Unlike soushoryu, the jutsu produced not a variety of bladed weapons including many varieties of shuriken and kunai alongside such fearsome objects as morning stars and kama, but a cloud of absolutely identical kunai, a dome surrounding Naruto.

The dome began to spin and close in on the blonde.

Kyubi chakra flooded out and stopped the bleeding of his left arm before turning to the more urgent matter of defence. Clones appeared, each wielding a rasengan in it's single hand, claws of vibrant red chakra flew through the air between Naruto and the rushing wall, hundreds of kunai were deflected and fell to the ground, no longer subject to the jutsu's control.

Hundreds more found themselves embedded in Naruto's flesh.

Through a cloud of smoke left behind be the vanishing clones and weapons floated Tenten's voice, "Regenerating that arm should normally take the rest of the day, coupled with the chakra you've already spent healing the other wounds I gave you and the chakra you need to use up now to recover form that last attack you wont be in a condition to fight for at least three days," Tenten's voice finally began to betray her weariness, the final sentence was almost a sob, "_please, stay down now._"

With a sudden flash of realisation she saw Naruto's instincts burn brightly as they had on the lake that day, she gasped at the feral cast of his features as he stood and held his one hand aloft. With a wordless howl he tilted his head back and summoned more chakra than Tenten had ever seen, it was even more immense than the pressure from her dad's reiryaku. A new arm burst from the stump of the old one as all the other wounds she had inflicted closed themselves.

Tenten's mind picked up the image of his next action slightly before he himself was aware of the fact he was hurtling through the space between them, still it was all she could do to raise her arms to block the vicious stroke, the stroke that never came.

Half way to his target Naruto suddenly found his body couldn't cope with continuing use of Kyubi chakra and the fox had withdrawn his assistance to prevent the risk of it's host killing himself with chakra burns. Mid step Naruto simply went weak and fainted, dropping to the ground and stunning the entire audience to silence.

The examiner, who had been expecting the boy to encounter this barrier much sooner, chose that moment to step forward and announce, "Competitor Uzumaki Naruto is unable to continue due to chakra exhaustion, winner, Herikawa Tenten!"

The brunette simply dropped to the ground in shock and exhaustion, despite all the talk of adding to the number of kunoichi capable of fighting at the S-class level she hadn't been expecting to win that round, she turned her head to where her parents were sitting, momentarily surprised to see Belgarion sitting right next to her father but really too tired to care at that point, and made a V with her fingers, she mouthed a word silently, 'Victory', and smiled happily mirroring her father's unrestricted grin.

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There were some five minutes remaining until Belgarion and the Hoshigaki boy would be summoned for thier match so Neji chose this moment to ascede to his team mate's request. He wandered idly about the waiting area until he was right behind Hoshigaki Kagato's left shoulder. he chose that moment to speak. 

"It's going to be two of the weakest slashes he can manage you know?" Neji smiled slightly as the shark faced gennin spun to face him, the shape of his eyes and mouth suggesting extreme shock and confusion, indeed he was so stunned he allowed Neji, an enemy shinobi and possible opponent in the later rounds of the exam to reach out and run the tip of his right index finger accross the top of his shoulder, "right here first, not even deep enough to cut your collar bone, not that that matters though since with your trapezius muscle severed you will lose the strength to wield that heavy sword."

The mist swordsman finally regained his wits and stepped back, his face a mask of rage and hostility. Neji wasn't really bothered. Everyone in the competitors area was staring at the developing confrontation with wide eyes. Neji wasn't really bothered by that either.

"Fine if you're gonna be like that I wont bother to tell you which side of your ribcage he's going to open, it isn't going to be a deep cut anyway, just enough to weaken your skin so that you'll dissembowel yourself if you try for any fancy footwork."

Kagato cracked, "Shut up fool! Why even bother trying to psych me out? Why not launch your verbal assault at you next opponent? Moron, this conversation gains you nothing."

The greenish skinned boy's nerves shook with Neji's reply, "It is sometimes given to the dead to know the fate of the living, it is given to no one to know thier own fate. Since I will be fighting my opponent this simple law prevents me from predicting the outcome anywhere near as accurately as i can your match."

A voice boomed from the arena floor, "Round two, Kirigakure's Hoshigaki Kagato vs. Konohagakure's Belgarion of Riva."

Still mentally shaken, Kagato took the chance to retreat. Neji smiled it looked like he was successful. Neji had promissed that if he was able to use the spell called Sha'ir's sentence to make Belgarion's match go more smoothly then the older boy would return the favor. Then the ex-Hyuuga thought about how much simpler his own match would be with the aid of the older boy's spell.

Neji's parting words would hang in the mist nin's mind althrough the fight, taunting him, until finally his focus on avoiding the strikes Neji had warned of would leave him open to exactly those blows, judging from how well it seemed to have worked Belgarion was in for an easy victory.

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I have nothign to write in this space

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well how did it go? 

pfft have naruto win ... how unoriginal.

looking forward to next chapter? it may take a while, i have a hardware problem. every time i use too much ram at once eg: forget to turn off media player before i open word, my pc resets itself merrily.

also how many people want me to keep writing nice long fights for the final round? this is still really only the intro and the real plot doesnt kick in until during the return to konoha from kiri so if eveyone thinks im being long winded or my fight scenes arent that great tell me and ill save them for more pivotal points in the story

as a final note before the responses im also putting out the first ch of a new story soon, dont expect it to be too frequent because this one is the higher priority but i do need to shift some of the ideas in my head that i dont want to put in here, i also may be changing my pen name because variety is the spice of life, i dont know what to though

**Dragon man:**it wasnt this fight i needed help with, im fairly well prepared and i was actualy asking for help with one that will be later on but as i have said somewhere(i think) i got on a forum and asked for help and tokeh gecko was nice enough to respond

**Dragon bard: **i dont mind not getting SDK stuff right since i saw it once ages ago, dubbed in japanese and subbed in chinese ... but then again if you can post some corrections in your next review ill definitely include them.

**Night owl:** i know i love bleach too, and this chapter has an explanation for why its comming up here too. if you have any ideas for tenten's shikkai or bankai(although if i go with one it wont be until MUCH later in the story) post em for me cos im rather unoriginal in the sword design area


	15. Water and lightning

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

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Kagato was unhappy, the sword duel was not going well, his opponent seemed to possess some strange power of deception. The flaming blue blade would scream in for a killing blow, the sort of smash that would easily cut his own blade in half, and he would barely be able to defend in time, his sword just scraping into position and bracing for impact only to find the blow to be no more than the faintest of taps and would flick around to strike at his shoulder while his guard was far too tense to move with any speed. One time he had decided to call the bluff and defend the first blow lightly, like magic that one blow had been true to it's appearance and had knocked him back nearly ten metres.

Then there was the defence, maybe one blow in ten would be simply ignored, it would squeeze through as though Belgarion's guard simply wasn't there and penetrate his chest only to come back clean, free of blood and only having really put a hole in part of that damn coat that covered so much more area than just his body.

Yeah Kagato was displeased in the extreme.

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Presently Belgarion was marginally impressed, the young mist gennin had enough potential to shame his own swordsmanship when he had been twice that age. It was only the long hard centuries of experience that gave the former child of light his advantage.

Belgarion was mildly amused when Hoshigaki jumped back to land on top of a pool in the corner of the arena, yet another thing Kiri used to grant themselves an advantage on their home turf, and began making hand seals. Amused enough, in fact, to speak up and let the world know about his mirth, rather than openly slander the boy for hoping to best him in the area he had listed openly as his specialty – ninjutsu – he chose to begin a short lecture, for the benefit of the crowd of course, "Ah ninjutsu. One of the more basic magical arts, of course ninjutsu largely refers to spells that manipulate magic via the focus of hand seals, whereas fuuinjutsu refers mostly to a much more complicated and pliable magic focused by correct application of language, specifically the written. What would happen, I wonder, if one were to take the study of fuuinjutsu and apply it to ninjutsu? Many claim to have done so … _doryuuheki!_"

"_Suiton, suikoudan no jutsu!"_

Apparently Kagato wasn't interested in Belgarion's explanation because he had continued his seals and simply launched his jutsu right away, ignoring his opponents comments, already he was flying through his next set of seals, preparing to throw out a jutsu that would prove to the watching kages that a Hoshigake doesn't need some pond in the corner to turn an area into a favourable battleground. From the top of his new wall Belgarion was also carrying on regardless, hopping to show those watching that he was far enough beyond this match to be calm and in control in this situation.

"… however all such attempts ignore a few facts, what they all end up being is an attempt to seal a ninjutsu within a fuuinjutsu, never anything original. However if I were to sketch this symbol in the air," here Belgarion's hand flicks out and draws something that no one in the stands can recognise, then again none of them come from the right world to know it anyway, "and use it to focus chakra carrying the fire element," in a burst of flame a sphere some two feet wide appears over Belgarion's head, "I would have some fire at my disposal, however this is a little limited as that's the problem with this jutsu."

Belgarion smirked a little at the sweating Kagato as he rushed through his seals at an even greater pace, from the number of seals he was doing this jutsu would take a long time even for a jounin to use, "Now if I were to convert to spoken words I would gain versatility without requiring any paper or materials to be on hand when I use the jutsu, but at this stage I don't have any idea of how to do that so instead I use the written gestures and speak the words aloud to see how that focuses my chakra, the result is called kidou, a sort of magic where a words are used to focus one's chakra, the spells can be short, _hadou no yon, byakurai!_"

A bolt of pure white lightning struck from Belgarion's finger toward the still furiously sealing gennin, only to be intercepted and Earthed by a few streams of water containing high concentrations of salts to increase conductivity, _hmm, so that's why he doesn't seem to be to worried about the time he's taking to finish this jutsu, he's got some sort of absolute defence while he works_. "Or, if time permits, one can enhance their effect by performing a full incantation,"

"_Conquerors of all,_

_Mask of flesh and bone,_

_All creation,_

_Wingbeats,_

_You who wears the names of man,_

_Truth and temperance,_

_Upon the sinless walls of dreams unleash your claws but slightly,_

_Hadou no san ju san, soukatsui"_

This spell was no small thing to be blocked by a wall of water, from Belgarion's hand streaks a wall of screaming flames big enough to send the spectators into a panic and have all of the nin's assigned to maintain a barrier protecting the crowd from stray jutsu bracing for a major impact. With amazing fortuity, however, the opposing gennin had finally finished the seals set for his latest jutsu and it was large.

"_Suiton, tou!"_

Visitors and guests who knew little about the village stared in shock, but natives to the hidden mist simply nodded in appreciation, this was the Hoshigake clan's signature jutsu, and one that natives have come to expect whenever one of that clan finds their way into the chuunin exams, some civilians even look forward to the exams with Hoshigake clansmen in them specifically for the effects of this jutsu. In the village of hidden mist sunlight never reaches the ground at any more than twilight intensity, ever. But now it was. All of the moisture in the air is gone, from the permanent fog that clogs the streets to the clouds that would be visible in the sky if the sky was visible, all gone. And all of that water is standing in the middle of the chuunin exam arena between a young boy and a young looking man, absorbing the impact of a wall of rippling blue flame. Slowly the shape of the water slips and the tower falls apart to become a thick lake in the middle of the arena, fully halfway up the arena walls. The actual volume of water collected is much greater than that, enough to fill the entire village to knee depth, but the 'tou' jutsu of the Hosigake clan is not an offensive technique, nor is it defensive, the technique is impressive in that it is purely used to compress water beyond it's normal limits, beyond even the point that each individual water molecule's nuclei are physically interposed upon several others, creating water of incredible density for use with following jutsu. A jutsu that completely turns any area in favour of the casting water user.

"Shut up! This arena is now mine! Surrender, your disadvantage is too great for you to hope to come out of this on top!" the exultation of the mist gennin is palpable in the air, obviously this advantage is quite significant to him. Belgarion however simple kneels and rests his hand on the surface of the water, he is miraculously dry even after all of that, standing calmly upon the water's surface, Kagato himself seems to have been unable to land upon the surface of the water without getting soaked, or perhaps he simply doesn't care about it now that he is at such a strong advantage.

"_Hyouton, kongou hokori!"_ with a phrase and an expulsion of chakra Kagato's preparations backfire as the small lake he is about to relax his chakra control and drop into turns into a single block of ice, "the field is your's?" Belgarion's voice is calm, unchanged since the start of the match, perhaps but for a slight questioning tone, "how so? To me it seems that you have put all the water you could possibly use to fuel one of your suiton jutsu in one place and allowed me to lock it away from you."

In a fit of rage the mist gennin charged, sword over one shoulder and screaming, ready for one last all or nothing swing … nothing. Belgarion simply sidestepped as the blade sailed past, slashing lightly across the top of Kagato's shoulder, severing the trapezius and leaving the boy barely able to hold his heavy weapon, shifting all the weight to his left hand the blue skinned boy found his backhanded blow stopped before he can start it by a slit over his ribs, barely deeper than the skin, just enough that he knows that finishing this manoeuvre with his off hand will be too much strain, enough to tear the skin and spill his organs on the ground, but small enough to heal with barely a scar if he is smart enough to quit now.

The fish faced boy's eyes widen as he recalls Neji's words from before the match

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"I warned him." Neji's voice tolled out solemnly in the box when Belgarion's final blow landed and everyone who heard him make that claim at the end of the prior match shook slightly with a chill at his voice.

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The tall Alorn laughed heartily and slapped his defeated opponent on the shoulder, mercifully the one he hadn't just opened with his blade, and spoke loudly. While the words were clearly meant to be taken as commiserations, the tone and volume made it clear that the sandy haired Konoha nin was directing this statement to the stands, "Cheer up kid! It could be worse, if the medics don't rush you off you should stick about and catch the next round, a cloud nin is about to die because he cant tell an absolute defence from and absolute offence. In the stands Neji shook his head, he'd only just finished creating that move a few days ago and his master was casting Sha'ir's sentence to force him into using it in the first round, still, with the spell cast, at least he knew where his opening to end the coming match would be. The only thing that bothered him was Tsunade-sama's order to kill any Cloud nin they encountered, that combined with Sha'ir's sentence basically guaranteed that this match would end in a death.

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Neji looked at his opponent, well as much so as the term can be applied to feeling his movements and expression with chakra, and had to admit that Belgarion had definitely chosen the right strategy for him, with so many mist nins watching there was almost no suiton jutsu he couldn't replicate by using the will and the word and letting their subconscious minds fill in the details. The Raikage was in the stands as well, a man reputed to have reached kage status knowing only two hundred jutsu (even Tsunade knew over three hundred) because all two hundred were lightning elemental. Given that lightning was the least variable of all elements and most ninja believed that there were only a maximum of fifty lightning jutsu in existence it was fairly a given that the same applied to ration jutsu.

With the terrifying gaze of his sightless hitai-ate once again not quite directed toward his opponent Neji activated his 'sight' to full battle level, filling the arena to the full height of it's walls with chakra so finely dispersed even a Jounin would have trouble realising that he was surrounded by it to get a feel of the space about him before condensing it around objects of interest to gain a more detailed picture. Neji found that he truly loved this particular mode of sight, despite the greater concentration it required of him, the thin cloud would detect any moving object the size of a senbon or larger as well as giving him a general idea of the proximity of any stationary obstacles of notable size, on the ground he swept about with a disc of denser chakra to gain a better idea of the shape of any patch of ground to which he might wish to leap. Around his opponent Neji gathered a much denser and more pervasive cloud, allowing him to resolve his 'image' enough to read his opponent's expression and permeating the surroundings so fully Neji could have announced to the crowd at large the exact contents of his opponent's equipment pouch. Finally Neji collected about himself the densest cloud, the same density as that surrounding his opponent out to three metres with an internal layer twenty centimetres deep so dense the ex-Hyuuga could potentially read a page of text by feeling the differences in texture between the inked areas and un-inked paper. Almost as an afterthought Neji sent out a bubble to keep track of the examiner and prevent himself from getting disqualified for attacking an official.

Neji was suddenly shocked to find that he'd fazed out during the usual gennin battle banter and missed the examiner announcing the start of the battle, slightly more bothering was that despite being listed by Konoha's intelligence as being a member of a Juuken specialist clan that charged lightning element chakra into their hands to emulate the effects of the Hyuuga ryu, his opponent, this Akage Ryo, had opted to go for an all out shuriken assault, some sort of jutsu that created copies of the kunai coming in from his front behind him and travelling in the opposite direction. Neji suppressed a grin with his normal impassive gaze when he realised that this was a trap, the fifty or so kunai coming from his 'blind' side all felt like lightning chakra, rather than being clones as in the shuriken kage bunshin these were kunai shaped bolts of electricity being drawn by electrostatic force toward the original kunai the jutsu was used with, the look of triumph forming on his enemy's face as he reached up to catch the flying weapon clearly confirmed as much. If Neji hadn't already been sneering a the time he would have begun right then, just as the electric kunai came within his personal chakra bubble he contracted the chakra into hundreds of the tiny blades he would normally use to cut chakra constructs or slice holes in particularly high levelled illusions. The chakra constructed kunai exploded into a shower of sparks without even getting close enough to warm the surrounding air just as Neji plucked the true item from the air, closer inspection revealed that the kunai was of a special design, it's head barbed like an arrow, with a hole drilled into the base to accommodate a rolled up explosion tag, a kunai designed to deliver an explosion tag without the target noticing the obtrusive piece of paper then … Neji suddenly went tense when he realised that there was a bit of paper inhabiting the special hole and that his opponent had, oddly, not stopped grinning when all of the chakra kunai were destroyed, before breathing a terrified sigh of relief when he realised the all the chakra in the tag was dispersed, it must have been disabled be the wall of chakra blades when the kunai went through.

Forcing down thoughts of just how close he had just come to dying in that double layered trap Neji launched the kunai back to it's owner, and spoke aloud, silently cursing that at least someone in crowd the who knew the jutsu had to be able to hear his voice for this to work, he couldn't simply whisper and catch his foe by surprise when the jutsu went off, "_Suiton, suikoudan no jutsu!_"

Water, allowed to seep into the soil by special ducts placed throughout the village every time a new building was constructed ever since one clever builder had thought up a way to stop the ever present near-flooding conditions of the village from knocking down too many walls, burst into the arena complete with left over ice from Belgarion's match, despite most of it having been melted and allowed to seep underground, ripping up the soil it was until recently contained within and coalesced in front of the eyeless gnnin before forming a shark's face and seeming to leap at his opponent.

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In his mind Akage Ryo cursed, loudly, the ill fortune that pitted him against this blind Konoha gennin. He'd been forced into _hiding_ from his opponent because his arm was quite limp from the glancing blow struck him by a chunk of ice as he'd dodged that ridiculous attack. How the hell did a gennin have enough chakra to do that? Cursing even more vehemently Ryo thought about how he'd gone directly against his sensei's advice when training for this match. After admitting that his previous encounter with the blind boy revealed that although both were close combat specialists Ryo couldn't hope to be his match in a knock down drag out brawl his sensei had told him to improve his legwork because this was the aspect of close combat that the Hyuuga ryu was weakest in, Ryo had instead chosen to learn some long distance ninjutsu and tactics to take advantage of what he hoped was an even greater all round weakness, even though his sensei had warned that if his opponent had trained extensively against long range fighters he could easily force close combat, which he was already admittedly superior in and Ryo would be missing out on improving if he went with the ranged option. It was even worse than that though, the leaf had apparently been in a similar position and opted to learn long range jutsu at some point in his life, and worst of all the jutsu were suiton, not really a specifically advantageous choice anywhere else but with the extra dense water laid down during the match previous … after barely dodging the shark blast Ryo had seen the Jounin who was taking most of the strain of holding the barrier over that particular section of crowd fall to his knees with the agony, but still fulfilling his duty and not letting the crowd so much as get wet.

Mentally slapping himself Ryo snapped out of his trance, he couldn't afford to have the other gennin's strange, sticky chakra find him again, all he could do was avoid the sweeping circles of chakra the blind leaf apparently used to sense his location and try desperately to come up with a plan. It was becoming increasingly apparent that rather than something as broad as a tactic a specific strategy would be necessary to come out of this alive and with another hitai-ate toward the economic salvation of his family.

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Outwardly Neji was puzzled and confused, at least so far as his opponent could tell, the examiner at very least seemed to be able to see through to the faint smirk that was trying to make itself visible on his face. Neji could, by virtue of the thinly spread chakra in the arena, have pinpointed his opponent at any time but he had chosen to allow his enemy to flee the focus of his sight so he could no longer read the expression on his foe's face, nor make out his movements clearly but as a trade his enemy couldn't sense such weak chakra signals and seemed to truly believe that Neji was lost and searching for him with the bubbles of more dense chakra flowing through the arena. What truly held Neji's interest were the small boxes the Cloud nin would occasionally leave behind, with each one their purpose became clearer and clearer, Akage was planning to force Neji to use the kaiten and then nail him with a powerful attack as he stopped spinning. Of course a cloud nin would think of that right? They lost a lot of their forces fighting the Hyuuga clan and strategies to oppose the Hyuuga ryu juuken were probably taught in the academy. Then again the fact that Belgarion used Sha'ir's sentence to plant thoughts of absolute defences in the boy's mind is likely to have something to do with it too. Neji found his course was decided, the promised opening was coming soon and while he was certain he could win without it, to do so would be more of a drain on his chakra and disadvantage him in later rounds.

Neji gathered his will and mentally prepared the right word.

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Ryo smirked as the last of his kunai launchers was placed, each held four kunai and would launch one at a time each time he touched it with his chakra, all he had to do now was stagger the launches right to force his enemy to use his defence for the maximum period of time and strike with his strongest lightning juuken when the opening appeared. With a pulse of chakra the first wave began. But then things went wrong.

"_Suiton, suijinheki!_"

Ryo was internally furious, _the damn leaf must have known about my plan all along, to use a jutsu that blocks small attacks from all directions over a long time frame_, before calming himself and thinking a moment, he already had just the jutsu for this situation prepared, a powerful, focussed strike should make a hole in the barrier long enough for Ryo to strike a fatal blow. Plus that sensing chakra had been blocked as soon as the water wall went up. So, in his right hand he readied a lightning jutsu that would cause a powerful spark to leap between two fingers and blow his opponent down with the resultant thunderclap's concussive force, he had originally planned to use this on Neji when the kaiten stopped and he was open but now it would have to be used to open the water barrier. In his left, which was still tingling painfully as it overcame the numbness caused by the glancing blow from the suikoudan, he prepared a jutsu he hated using, the strongest killing strike of his juuken he had yet mastered, this strike would cause all the bio electricity within the leaf gennin's body to leap into Ryo's own causing him incredible pain and likely returning his arm to that numb state for the rest of the day, the trade off was that while Ryo would be hurt by the electric charge Neji's heart would stop by it's absence. He began his charge, but halted once more when the leaf called out the name of another jutsu that threw yet more spanners in the works.

"_Raiton, Raihekihoujin._"

Ryo grunted, more in annoyance than anything else, this barrier would condense and stop almost any focussed attack. But Ryo had this one's weakness on hand too, the raihekihoujin would be weakened severely if he forced it to spread out and try to stop multiple smaller attacks, the damn fool leaf had tried to make an absolute defence by having each barrier cover for the other's weaknesses but in the end all he did was make Ryo look better in front of the judges. By pure coincidence the kunai launchers placed to force an opening earlier would be perfect for bypassing the lightning barrier and allowing him to strike the water barrier and then kill the leaf, and the best part was that to a watcher it would look like Ryo was brilliantly prepared, real chuunin material.

With a feral grin Ryo cut loose all of the remaining kunai, with all of them striking at the same time he could slip through the barrier with only a tingling sensation. At about three metres out Ryo was delighted to see the water barrier come toward him, expanding and weakening as it tried to cover more area and probably killing the lightning barrier as it passed, Ryo raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, releasing the jutsu into the wall of water and directing the force away from himself with his chakra.

"_Raimei no jutsu._" (thunderclap)

The approaching wall of water burst about him, leaving a human sized gap for him to leap through. On the other side he found his opponent, standing in wait, arms crossed, apparently unaware of the fact his barrier was breached or possibly not prepared to react because he didn't anticipate it as being possible, either way Ryo reached out, moving his hand into contact with the leaf and preparing to unleash the full force of his jutsu on him.

"_Seimei no owa…" (End of li...)  
_

The name of the dreadful killing skill wouldn't leave his mouth as he felt a massive current collect around him, holding him in place. _NO! the lightning barrier should have been dispelled by the water barrier going past!_ With the sudden clarity of someone who has just realised that they are close to death Ryo realised that the lightning barrier was not visible if nothing was touching it and he had done nothing to find out whether it was outside the water wall or inside.

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Neji relaxed out of his forcedly mocking pose and relaxed into his fighting stance, some would call it strange that Neji would find his fighting stance more comfortable than standing at ease … but then maybe not. His plan was perfect and the damn fool cloud nin hanging midair in front of him showed that. As the electric field condensed more and more upon the location of the foreign element it drew with it the other objects it had captured thanks to the water wall slowing them down so much.

The Cloud nin's eyes widened as all of the kunai he had planned to use to weaken the barrier were picked up because of their slow pace and embedded in his body, for a moment he was in supreme pain before Neji's hand found the centre of his chest and poured in enough chakra to liquefy half a dozen internal organs. Neji released the barrier at the same time, allowing the corpse to drop to the ground before walking toward the contestant's exit, not even waiting for the match to be called.

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The Raikage was livid with rage, holding on to his poise desperately with all the mental strength of an S-ranked shinobi. At the opposite end of the kage's box the object of his rage sat calmly, no longer even looking surprised at the performances of her nins, clearly satisfied that Konoha's political position was secure with a performance like this. Of course it was, the last time a village had eliminated every other village form the tournament before the second round almost every major A to S-ranked mission had gone to them, even countries that were at war with the government of the country had bypassed diplomatic channels to hire nins from that village for the whole six months until the next exam and _that _had been on home turf, what would happen to the other village's positions if Konoha managed to pull that off despite being on foreign soil?

The leader of Kumogakure no sato had to physically grip his right hand in his left to prevent himself from trying to fling a kunai at the legendary sannin on his far right. Separating them were the Mizu- and Tsuchi-kages. But even if the others were as incensed as he they probably could not overcome the Hokage before she was reinforced by the legendary Jiraiya who was just a few hundred metres away in the contestant's box, talking to his student – who the Raikage was horrified to notice had almost completely recovered from his match and was sitting up and responding happily to whatever the toad sannin was talking about. Then there were the teachers, among them were the very cream of Konoha's combat experts, only Hatake Kakashi was missing to make the full set of Konoha's masters of each shinobi discipline, with a start he realised that while it had seemed logical that Konoha would try and have the students of it's best make a good impression at the exams it also meant that the teacher's boxes seated enough leaf firepower to level Taki or Kusa, and prove quite damaging even for the largest of villages if they started attacking without warning.

The Raikage's eyes widened and his knuckles whitened as his grip increased in force.

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Chaptar endo!! Hohahaha

Not much to say really I stopped writing for ages but now I am again … huzzah!

Wow … type 'huzzah' into Microsoft word, apparently it's in the dictionary. (omg it's in the dictionary of firefox v2 as well)

Props for this chapter go to Ambrant Arandel for writing inspiring fics and being interested. Oh, and having a good favourite authors list too.

I originally planned to have a different ending to the one I'm thinking of going for now and that ending wasn't particularly good, that's rather why I stopped writing and started writing my other fic (which you cant read because I write it in a notebook on the train home everyday and I've been too lazy to type it all out) but then I was thinking and suddenly a new ending appeared in my head and bang here I am again


	16. Death dances and angel down

Warnings: Crossover, **defnitly** main character death, this isn't AU it's the original manga that's AU I swear … ok AU … oh and it starts ch 236 of the manga.

Disclaimer: well kishimoto owns most of the characters and geography etc in this story … Eddings owns Belgarion and the orb of Aldur … oh and morardim demonology and "the will and the word" magical paradigm.

I thought i would end it this chapter, but i was unhappy with the way it went so i had to change some more things, just a note to dragon man (aka meaningful input boy, as youre the only one who gives me any :P) would you rather see the gennin vs another jinchuuriki or the hokage's battle? both were in the original but it ruined the pace of the ending so I want to try with only one.

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Ichigo starred across the stadium to the Kages' box. Over the centuries he had matured, learning the finer points of what a shinigami of his power should be able to do. Now instead of just the incredible combat power of a captain level he also possessed any of the other incredible skills captains were routinely credited with. He could cast kidou in the sixties without incantation and was accomplished in many of the more subtle arts. Particularly in use at this time was his ability to read the emotions of nearby people based on fluctuations in their reiatsu. Since reiatsu, spiritual power, was only one half of the energy known as chakra, the energy of the living, his ability to detect emotions in living shinobi to an extent, but he would never be able to read a human ninja the same way an experienced shinobi could. But many things were within his ability to detect.

Where Ichigo scored over the living was the incredible range he could sense at. For instance, right now, one of the people in the Kages' box, whose soul energies tasted like being hit with a lightning hadou, was getting progressively more enraged at a presence he was able to recognise as Tsunade. Even his wife, who sat next to him and chatted animatedly with (or rather _at_) Aburame Shibi, could detect the flaring energies at this range. But surely the other Kages and their Jounin guards would be picking this up. Ichigo couldn't help but feel like violence was imminent. If mist sided with the lightning souled one, almost undoubtedly the Raikage, then even though the powerhouses of Konoha would be able to force exit, there would be little chance of escape without casualties.

Unconsciously Ichigo began to finger the flaming skull mark on his necklace, ready to use it to shed his false human flesh at a moment's notice. His small, unconscious fidgeting only came to his notice when he realised his wife was staring at him questioningly. Quickly the shinigami lowered the offending limb and tried to look normal for a moment, but Rukia wouldn't give in (as usual) and now looked even more intently at him, Shibi was silent as always but the almost unheard sound of his hive had suddenly gone completely silent, indicating that he was suddenly paying a lot of attention.

After looking about for several moments, inspecting the surrounding spectators, Ichigo felt that there were no obvious doujutsu users around so the chances of being caught out were quite low so he performed a feat of control that make even the best of the best within the thirteen squads swear it was impossible. Admittedly any shinobi above gennin level would do better five or six times on a normal day, but still...

Holding up one hand he showed his wife the words, '_The Raikage is almost angered to the point of attacking Hokage-sama. He could crack at any moment. Don't know who the other kages will side with,' _in flickering formations of spirit particles. Behind her, rather than looking momentarily stunned as she did, Shibi simply nodded once before flickering slightly in his seat and turning to watch the workmen repairing the arena floor between the first and second blocks. Ichigo nearly cursed aloud, of course Shibi would be able to read the text, Aburame from the ruling family could even see shinigami clearly, even the Byakugan and Sharingan could only see a monochrome blur, but there was a strain of Kikaichuu that only resided in the hives of the clan head and his successor that had descended from a hollow so ancient and powerful it had been able to force it's own degeneration into a mere living creature.

Looking for a moment at the bug clone the clan leader had left in his place, doubtless he was getting into position near the Hokage, Ichigo passed his wife a bag of 'candy' while hurriedly swallowing his own. She too one and swallowed it herself. To even the most suspicious Jounin that was all that happened, it had taken two centuries to get Urahara to make soul candy that didn't leave an obviously different personality in control of the user's body. Leaping over the crowd, invisible to the eyes f even the best Jounin until a locating jutsu was used, the duo that had in past generations been called such names as 'the unseen leaves' and 'Konoha's black hand' landed on the stadium roof and began to run toward the kages' box.

Just behind their seats a shinobi called Oiharaseya Sakurako (Sakurako the banisher) raised a delicate eyebrow, before setting off to intercept.

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In the cafeteria style eatery most of the spectators were taking the opportunity to stock up on snacks and hot food during the intermission, in time for the next block of battles. Not twenty metres away Belgarion stood in an alcove, eyes closed and working a utilitarian form of magic he had picked up on yet another of the worlds that called themselves 'Earth'. Although this particular world had arrived at that name by the rather unusual means of an acronym, it's proper name was the 'Enormous And Round Teran Homeworld', which always brought a smile to the ancient young man's face.

One problem with the will and the word was that, although capable of quite complex magic in an instant and capable of anything at all since it was after all the magical style favoured by the gods, in the hands of a human it could be frustratingly limited. Besides the limitations placed upon man as far as not speaking the language of the gods, it was also inordinately difficult to release a spell over time or cast a spell and hold it's effects in place. It was not impossible for a human to achieve this, but it was strenuous to do so using a style whose strong point was releasing everything in one go, his grandfather Belgarath would have done this using the will and the word, so would his aunt Polgara, but neither had travelled to the other worlds and sampled the strange new ways of doing things they held.

One group in particular, the cultists of ecstasy, worked magic over months at a time by pursuing a trancelike they called 'the ecstasy' brought about by experiencing new extremes of pleasure and pain, drugs, sex, music, dance, fetishism and more. At first the ancient child of light had found these practices abhorrent, but as his exposure to them increased he found that while the methods of their magic were disgusting, he had to admire the use to which they put it. They had done more to benefit the defenceless and magically unable than any other group of willworkers he had yet encountered.

It was from them that he learned to sing. As he sang his mind was almost detached from himself, ironically it was his pondering the parallels between the song and what his magic was going to achieve that made it work.

_If you are near,_

_To the dark,_

_I will tell you 'bout the sun._

_You are here,_

_No escape,_

_From my visions of the world._

_You will cry,_

_All alone,_

_But it does not mean a thing to me._

Belgarion paused a moment, sparing a quick thought to hope that everything was in place, he couldn't stop this spell for more than a few minutes at a time or the composed lightning shinobi would regain control of his anger before the matches started. But if the spell worked and everything was not in place...

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Lee was vibrating with enthusiasm and impatience, at first he had adopted the quiet serious persona that Gai-sensei insisted he use when on a mission that held a possibility of death. This exam still held that possibility, Neji's battle had proven that, but Lee found that the previous block of battles had excited his youthful spirit and forced aside his battle face. He was bouncing on the spot and leaking small puffs of chakra, muttering about the flames of his incredible youth. As his thoughts turned more and more to the fire metaphor of youth, the idea that his youth was burning, the leaking chakra took more and more of a fire quality. The room was becoming uncomfortably hot when Neji finally cracked and dispersed the heating chakra with a burst of his own.

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Tsunade laughed heartily and took a mighty gulp of her sake, slapping the Tsuchikage on the back. Nearby the Rai- and Mizu-kages were laughing politely at some jest made by a wealthy merchant who had previously sent much business to both villages. To the nobles and businessmen using this time to mingle with the kages it all looked like a grand show of civility. To the shinobi in the room it was like being in deep cover in an enemy camp, the feeling whenever the Raikage and Hokage made eye contact was exactly like hearing mutters of a spy in camp. The feeing of imminent violence was in the air, looming nearby within the realm of possibility.

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The intermission was finally over, Lee would have leapt for joy if Gai hadn't just finished a reiteration of a speech to the affect that while youth was most beautiful when it was burning it's brightest flame, it should be channelled toward fuelling his focus in a match this serious, lest those flames be extinguished before time. He had indeed taken these words to heart because the heat rolling off him had suddenly died and he had been meditating for the last five minutes. Over the course of this meditation the chakra had not stopped escaping, but it had cooled and lost it's fiery properties until, now, it was cool and clingy, no longer distinguishable from the mist that was finally coming back after the side effects of the jutsu used by the Hoshigaki boy.

Also meditating was his opponent, but were Lee was focussing his mind and changing the shape of his thoughts to make his strategy for this fight possible, the cloud nin was desperately looking for a strategy he considered viable. He was from a famous cloud bloodline, but one without any bloodline limits like the Raiou clan whose skin was said to literally flow with static or the Hatori clan the Raikage was descended from, who were said to have the essence of lightning in their very souls. Not even something simple like the Akage clan's ability to influence the bio static energy in others without the need for complex medical jutsu. But where most non-bloodline limited clans taught a variety of clan jutsus around a common theme that allowed for a certain degree of specialisation, his clan taught only nin- and gen-jutsu common to the village as a whole and relied on their genetic tendency for high endurance and a few taijutsu skills that sapped the opponent's energy to see them through. An electric Juuken, designed to exhaust the enemy while you were still fresh.

Seikitou Hyozou was worried because he could already see problems looming, his clan was well known, their style was documented in detail by Konoha during the war, not ten years earlier and the new techniques developed to counter this had yet to filter down to the lower ranked members of the clan. Hyozou wasn't one of the main family, he was only the second cousin of the clan heir, meaning that his potential was held in low regard and he was given low priority in training, which made his performance worse, which lead to his potential continuing to be judged as low and his priority in training to decrease further... He had been content with the idea of becoming a regular shinobi and living out his days in a minor role for his village. But his clan had all but sacrificed him, sending him into this exam, a year or more before he should have been ready to face an exam in another village, against leaf and sound gennin with much more experience and power and orders to kill him, just so two of the village's prodigies would have the chance to earn fame and kills in the name of their home.

But it had been his team mates who had fallen to the wounds dealt them by the leaf nin called Tsurugi Ayame on her way to the final round. It had been him who had earned two kills when fighting the sound gennin team who had dealt the finishing blows to his crippled allies. His Jounin-sensei told him that his performance warranted special attention and that, pass or fail, he would receive it should he but survive against this foe. Secretly he wished this exam had been in Suna or even Konoha (even if having a cloud nin in Konoha for the exam was ... unlikely), because they allowed participants to forfeit in the first round, unlike here in Kiri, where everyone was expected to at lease exhaust their chakra before giving up.

The Seikitou gennin was absolutely confident, but he needed to be, he had long since decided that the only reason he had survived when the others had fallen was that he had accepted his death and been willing to take risks that others would not, even if only to take one more of the enemy with him than he already had. Then his stupid sensei had made that offer, he had made it more likely that he would die by giving him something to look forward to if he lived, something to loose where before he had been free because he had nothing. So he had spent the month's grace period training to regain the mindset he needed to make a move in the world he was now facing, he had forced himself to learn absolute confidence, such that he could once again take any risk because there was no room in his mind for failure.

He was ready, whatever strategy he might have would work because he would not hesitate. But from there came another problem, there was no strategy. With his clan being so well known it was beyond doubt that the gennin in green's sensei would have given him a rundown of how the Seikitou Juuken worked and what strategies it's users relies on, while the second green beast of Konoha was all but an unknown beyond what his allies had slipped up and revealed today, it was even said that his whole style was brand new and still being created day to day.

So Hyozou used the whole intermission to at least try for a psychological advantage.

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Belgarion stared down into the arena, happy to be able to rest his voice after the intermission, the long casting had taken it's toll, even by the easier method. Staring down to the floor Belgarion could see Lee, standing tall, in a stance befitting of his self appointed title of proud green beast, even if the 'green' part was obscured beneath his Rivan greycloak. Opposite him stood a cloud nin who seemed to be chanting to himself, Belgarion could just recognise the words as a very primitive variant of Sha'ir's sentence, one used to eliminate psychological weaknesses in the caster rather than impart them upon the enemy. It wasn't truly magical, but it was as close as one could come before magical abilities would begin to develop on their own.

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Lee was tense, the Jounin had begun the match over twenty seconds ago but his opponent had not moved, despite Gai-sensei's strategy briefing stating that his clan's style tended to rely on being on the offensive rather than allowing yourself to be forced to defend. Still the boy was jus standing there chanting, Lee obviously suspected a trap and had been pushing chakra out his feet almost since the beginning of the match. He hoped that whatever this trap was it would be sprung soon, he was on his fifth repeat of his little mantra.

_The enemy is alone._

_I am alone._

_What cause for fear?_

_I cast off my fear._

_If I retreat I will age._

_If I hesitate I will die._

_So I face forward._

_So I advance._

Suddenly the repetition of those eight phrases seemed to fulfil it's purpose, because the cloud nin stopped and flashed Lee a look of utmost manic resolve and suicidal confidence. Lee was taken aback by those eyes, so much so that when his opponent shot forward and tried to force close combat, he retreated half a step and allowed the air type chakra he had prepared as a defence against any trick the cloud nin might pull to escape into the soil. Air chakra differs from wind chakra in that it is mostly used in genjutsu and movement of gasses, in the manner of earth or water chakra, rather than being useable as raw chakra the way fire, lightning and wind are.

Due to the ... uncontrolled manner in which the air chakra was inserted into the muddy soil, the effect Lee had been aiming for failed to manifest. What did happen was that several tonnes of mixed soil and water found themselves mixed with an equal volume of air, turning the air into a brown mess of zero visibility, the ground into a giant sponge and the combatants into projectiles, headed toward opposite walls of the arena.

Lee, as could perhaps be expected from his personality, recovered quickly, channelling chakra to stick to the stadium walls and staying there rather than dropping to the arena floor. Looking up lee was able to see that his foe was neither so fortunate nor so self possessed. The poor boy managed to twist so that he hit the wall feet first, absorbing the impact, but rather than channelling chakra to stick, he allowed himself to turn a graceful flip and land calmly upon the dirt of the arena floor. The cloud nin cried out in shock as the thoroughly aerated soil gave way, dropping him to waist depth in puffy mud.

Seeing a clear difference between himself and his opponent Lee momentarily allowed his 'normal' personality to surface and began to consider showing mercy. Because even his usual personality wasn't stupid he also placed his palms together and began spinning chakra around the circle of his torso, constantly accelerating it, before allowing himself to speak his offer aloud.

"You are on your knees, before a power you cannot face. Please give up." Lee hated to quote the old Neji but even that sort of psychological warfare was preferable to outright killing someone who seemed to be only fighting to die, "even though our kages have ordered us to kill as many enemies as possible, you seem simply to be fighting for an honourable death. Someone like that ... I couldn't kill you as you are now any more than a Jounin would kill an innocent bystander, I cannot speak for Kumo but in Konoha we have more pride than that. So you must either fight me like you really intend to end this exam as a chuunin or forfeit now."

Hyozou began to growl in the back of his throat. He leapt up, freeing himself from his boggy prison and charging at Lee, enough chakra focused on his feet to allow him to stand atop the soft earth the same way a nin might traverse deep snow. Lee did not look worried, or even surprised, he simply sighed and shook his head in disappointment. With a final sigh he leant forward and placed his palms in contact with the arena floor.

In that instant a great many things happened at once, Seikitou's face transformed in shock as his foot pushed through a particularly large air bubble and sent him tumbling into the boggy mud. Lee released hard, earth chakra from his left hand and hot, fiery chakra from his right. One kage blocked a blow from another, the remaining two grimaced at finding their hands forced by their fellow's actions. Neji stiffened, wondering at the meaning of Belgarion's suddenly grim look and three shinobi found themselves banished to a city two of them were horrified to recognise as Tokyo.

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"Take Neji and Lee and follow the other teams to a more defensible location." With only those words Gai was gone, having judged his team most able to keep up with the other teams without their sensei and leaving to assist Jiraiya in liberating the Hokage from the barrier.

Belgarion simply nodded and turned, with Neji, toward the arena. As they reached the railing Belgarion turned and called over his shoulder to the Jounin-sensei coordinating the gennin's retreat, "Tsurugi-san! Neji and I are going to extract Lee, we'll be catching up." Then the two leapt from the railing and were gone.

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Kurenai nearly screamed in frustration, minutes ago all hell had broken loose. First Lee had struck a crippling blow to his opponent, hardening and compressing the fluffy dirt to achieve a similar effect upon his opponent's legs and abdomen to the one Gaara had once achieved upon Lee's own limbs. Then the Kages' box had vanished, encapsulated in a solid black sphere. Shortly after a messenger had announced that the Mizukage had ordered his nins to side with the Raikage in his conflict with Konoha. Instantly dozens of guards had abandoned their posts and began an assault upon the Konoha delegation. At first, being the most junior Jounin, the genjutsu mistress had looked to others for leadership and simply played her familiar support role, but then Jiraiya and Gai had left to aid Hokage-sama, leaving only herself and Tsurugi Mikoto to lead the gennin. Then the Jounin-sensei of the two older teams had fallen to a kunai with numbing poison and left Kurenai alone to lead the gennin to a stronger defensive position and push out of the hostile village if possible. The red eyed Jounin felt her own abilities unsuited to this sort of leadership, preferring support her squad during large battles like this.

Despite her own assessment of her skills, Kurenai was possibly the best person to handle the situation. The gennin present were all chosen by Tsunade because, even if they failed to make chuunin level in other areas, they all possessed B-rank or greater combat prowess. With her illusions adding to the complexity of the battle for the mist nins they were actually able to hold for a time against Jounin, so far without casualties even (at least among the gennin). Subconsciously she was also giving tactically sound directions and orders. Currently Yamanaka Ino was carrying the unconscious, bleeding form of the downed sensei while other gennin capitalised on the distractions caused by the current illusion of a dense forest that only the attackers could see to keep their foes at bay while moving as a group to meet the medic contingent that was hopefully fighting toward them. A tactic like this wouldn't work against ANBU but due to mist's constant problems with missing nins, Kirigakure hadn't used those elite for any duty within the village in years.

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Sakura followed the two medics senior to her with as much speed as she could manage but stayed far enough behind that she was never involved indirect combat. The three utilised a technique that Konoha medics had used since even before Tsunade's time to push through enemy lines. One medic, in this case the old man who was assigned as the medic team leader for the exam, projected a constant stream of clear vapour that caused the eyes to water and vision to blur. The second, Shizune, breathed out another clear gas, that if inhaled would induce intense coughing and nausea. Both could be defeated by simply channelling a little chakra over the face, which is how the medics were able to run freely, but it was too simple, even a civilian child could 'get used to it' and reflexively channel enough chakra to move freely after a minute or two.

Obviously such a technique would never be enough to distract a shinobi while your dealt a telling blow, but it cost next to no chakra so you would have as much left as possible when you reached the injured on the field and as long as you caught others by surprise and never stopped moving at full speed it could be enough to pass whole squads of scouts. Of course you could get far enough ahead before pursuit started to drop a few simple traps to help you maintain your lead. You would never loose a pursuit that way but it was just right if you had to cross a trouble area to reach a fortification or a pocket of allies on the field. God knows you would want some allies on hand when you stop moving.

Unfortunately the only route that lead to their allies without forcing them to dash through a wide open space was a long and confusing series of corridors, it would seriously hider their chances of reaching the other group before casualties were incurred. That's where Sakura got a duty important enough for her to stay out of combat at all times. Her senses were fixed on the familiar discordance of her only remaining team mate's chakra.

"Next right, then about twenty metres in the left."

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Kurenai's mind raced, at first she had spared a thought for praise of Gai's squad, if this exam had been to extract an ally from a hostile and potentially lethal situation then they would have definitely passed. But now there was no time for praise of any sort, even when she saw Hinata strike down a Jounin face to face, all around her gennin were working overtime, forced to work that much harder due to the absence of their leader's illusory support as she and Hinata were the only ones with the senses to plot an escape route.

The group held in a corridor, with walls on two sides the gennin each held a part of one of two defensive lines, covering each approach, by working in pairs to maximise their defence in the cramped quarters. In their two lines, back to back, the leaf gennin all alternated between covering a partner while they caught their breath and catching their breath while being covered. Between the two lines stood Neji, shouting warnings and coordinates, covering everyone's blind spots and making sure Naruto's legion was always in position to do the most good for their allies. On his left stood Belgarion, throwing out spells, jutsu, disciplines and any number of other supernatural powers whenever an ally landed in more trouble than just their partner could pull them out of. Above hung Tenten, using enough chakra to support her weight but little enough that she did not grip the roof as she spun at full speed. It is a pity none of the nins had seen a gatlin gun because then they may have known how to describe the steel torrent issuing forth from her hands.

At the very centre, amid an odd calm, were Hinata and Kurenai, the younger speaking rapidly and in great detail with her byakugan active while the older scrawled madly on a scroll. At one point someone had cut cleanly through the lines, slipping neatly between Shino and Lee before rushing with singular purpose toward the Jounin leader. The figure ignored everyone bar the few shadow clones who managed to get in it's way. At first Hinata had enough faith in her allies to ignore the approaching death and focus on her own task, but when four Narutos vanished in puffs of smoke on contact with a heavy scimitar blade and that selfsame blade began to fly toward her sensei's blind side, her control was abandoned and she began to scream.

Strangely the scimitar's blade never managed to bite into her sensei's flesh. Almost everyone stopped in shock, but none were so confused as the attacking swordsman. The heavy, forward curved blade had struck an even larger sword, stuck point first into the ground. Hinata was momentarily at a loss, she was familiar with Belgarion's tactic of luring enemies into traps by leaving his sword lying around the battlefield, but she was sure she had seen him wielding it not moments ago. But then Naruto was there, not a clone but the real deal, gripping a handful of complicatedly swirling chakra, only the real one wouldn't be dispelled by the constant damage done to his hands by inserting six rasengan into the mist nin's stomach. As the man flew off Naruto gave Hinata a heart pounding-ly relieved smile before returning to the fray.

Then the little incident was over and everyone else was fighting their own defences again. Hinata steeled herself and went back to mapping. Just for a moment she caught several chakras below her ... the medic team! But what was Sakura doi ...!

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"It's right here!" at their junior's shout the two older medics stopped their respective gas jutsu and turned, facing the hallway that would doubtless fill with their pursuers in a few moments. There was, however, no waiting to check for followers as Shizune simply assumed the worst, pulling back her sleeve and making her senbon launchers sing. The senior medic blew into a long tube, filling the corridor behind them with a black, smoky haze, much more harmful than those used during their flight, even the concrete of the walls was dissolving slightly in it's wake. Agonised screams indicated that there were indeed still nins giving chase and that they were being … delayed by the Konoha nin's tactics.

In an impressive display of power Sakura shattered a large column in the middle of the room, already showing similar traits to her master. Ignoring the results of her incredible feat of chakra control, the slight girl used the remains of the pillars as a step in order to reach up and deliver another unbelievable blow to the ceiling.

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Hinata managed to right herself and land one her feet amid the falling rubble, rushing over to help Ino in keeping her injured charge free from additional harm, she was a kunoichi after all. Beyond those reflexes though, she was at a loss, first she had seen Sakura throwing a punch up at her feet from the floor below and then she had been falling down to that very floor.

Kurenai was at no such loss, after a sentence or two of explanation from Shizune she was shouting orders once more. The corridor was rapidly filled with gennin who, upon hearing the orders, fell back and dropped into the hole. The oldest medic nin came forward to relieve Hinata of her burden. Kurenai's stream of orders did not stop.

"Kiba, Lee, Naruto, I need you to keep the enemy on the topside of the hole for about a minute." Even while she shouted she was forming a long, complex string of seals, hazy genjutsu was already popping into view as she created images and put them on hold for later use, "Shino, Tsurugi-san, Ino, that corridor if you would," there was already sound of growling and vanishing clones from above, the named trio headed toward the corridor leading back to the medic wing. "If anyone has any big jutsu to cover their retreat start getting them ready," a male gennin from Tsurugi Ayame's team nodded and began seals while facing the corridor his team mate was defending, with a look of resolution Tenten swallowed a pair of pills and split in two, "Shizune-san, the location marked on Hinata's map if you would, Belgarion-san, you have a transportation skill correct?" the tall gennin nodded but Kurenai hadn't waited for confirmation, "go to the marked location and secure the area before we arrive with the wounded." Orders apparently complete she turned her focus completely upon whatever genjutsu she was throwing together.

Tenten, the new one in the hakama, turned her gaze upon the hole above and, drawing her sword, began to focus, "Tobidashite, Mugendougu!" her sword was suddenly gone, in it's place she held a steel ring, just large enough to accommodate a hand, by the handle spanning it's middle. With a jerk four steel point exploded outward from the ring, forming a shuriken as large as the girl herself. Slamming it into the floor she pulled the ring from the middle and made another, and another, and another …

Belgarionhad already gone, taking Neji with him, dropping to his knees and seeming to twist himself out of existence. Nearby Shizune was madly inking a scroll with the strange runes used in written jutsu. Everyone was tense, performing their assigned duties.

"Please stand away from the centre of the room." Shizune's voice was calm as she placed the scroll upon the floor with a jar of ink atop it. Obeying her words everyone, even the medic still working on the injured Jounin, cleared a large space. In a burst the text on the scroll leapt up and into the ink jar for a moment before the contents of the jar sprayed about the room in an accurate enlargement of the jutsu onto the floor of the room.

As Shizune began the seals to activate this monster of a jutsu Kurenai had just completed her own and shouted the orders for the defending teams to pull back.

Three boys and a dog tumbled through the hole in the ceiling, apparently close to being forced back anyway, all bleeding but in no way slowed by their injuries. As they passed through the opening Tenten opened fire, sending the full two dozen massive shuriken she had managed to make through the hole and flicking half in each direction from the top of the hole with chakra strings. Then, amidst cries of 'suijin heki' from above, the other defending group returned, queuing their support to cover them.

"Dotton, doujin taiga!" turned the corridor to slippery mud roof and all, preventing pursuit as the corridor began to collapse.

With everyone inside the circle Shizune finished her seals and the Konoha delegation vanished. Then, with their creator no longer present to hold them still, Kurenai's illusions sprang to life, first the floor was cleared of the jutsu markings, then the whole group reappeared. Finally, just as the mist nins entered the room, 'Naruto' performed the kage bunshin and flooded in every direction while everyone else slipped into a side passage in the confusion.

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In the kages' box the whole world was frozen as a single voice spoke, "Raikage-sama, I have intercepted a trio of leaf nins attempting to enter the kages' box while bearing arms. Request further orders."

Unfreezing, the Raikage smiled a horrific victory smile, "Maintain the barrier," with the terrific smugness of someone who felt assured of victory, "Well gentlemen, will you aid me against our common enemy?"

The Mizukage was the first to respond, "Given that you were the first to break the peace of the exams in my village I should, by rights side with Hokage-dono. However, since your death will likely prompt your subordinate to shrink this barrier to a size smaller than a human and because I realise that the nature of this barrier is a portal, it seems I have little choice but to side with you. Especially since I don't want to kill you in battle only to be sent to some other world like the three leaves that were just reported. It doesn't hurt that I am also angered by Konoha's actions in this exam."

Moving to stand next to the Raikage and gesturing to his subordinates to make ready, the Mizukage turned his gaze upon the Tsuchikage, the only remaining unknown.

Then, with the attention of every shinobi in the dome upon him, the Tsuchikage stood and shook his head. The man was revealed once more as the shortest and slightest of stature of all the shinobi present. Turning to his lone guard, a man who was conversely the largest and tallest figure within the dome, he spoke with disgust in his voice, "Come, we are leaving."

The Raikage spoke smugly, "You cannot simply leave Tsuchikage-dono. As the perceptive Mizukage has already observed this barrier is a portal, any attack you might direct at it will simply go through the portal to wherever it is those leaves wound up. This is the strongest exorcist technique in my village, you will have to pick a side, Tsuchikage-_dono_."

Rather than appear fazed by this, the Tsuchikage simply raised an eyebrow toward his underling. Nodding in confirmation his guard reach about and recovered a large metal disc from his back and began breaking parts off it. When he had a hole big enough to fit his arm he had the attention of everyone present. Finally with a flourish he revealed the disc to be nothing more than a disguise for a sword as tall as himself, a very familiar sword to some of those present and swung at the barrier.

The Mizukage released a strangled gasp at the sight of the sword, "Hoshiga …" but then the two were gone and the hole in the barrier was closing.


End file.
